Hf ;- 
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REESE    LIBRARY 

OV   THK 

UNIVERSITY    OF    CALIFORNIA. 


Received.,         __ 

^ 

Accessions  No._/g&&?  Shelf  No.  _ 


m    •  '•< 
- 
\    •      •-••-"•'.•  •     •• 


LITERARY   REMAINS 


OF  THE  LATE 


ANUEL    DEUTSCH 


WITH  A  BRIEF  MEMOIR 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 


NEW  YORK 
HENRY  HOLT  AND  COMPANY 

1874 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

MEMOIR    ....  v 


I.  THE  TALMUD 1 

II.  ISLAM        59 

III.  NOTES  OF  A  LECTURE  ON  THE  TALMUD      135 

IV.  A  LECTURE  DELIVERED  AT  THE  MIDLAND  INSTITUTE,  BIR- 

MINGHAM     145 

V.  NOTES  OF  A  LECTURE  ON  SEMITIC  PALAEOGRAPHY    ..      ..  153 

VI.  NOTES  OF  THREE  LECTURES  ON  SEMITIC  CULTURE  ..      ..  159 

VII.  EGYPT,  ANCIENT  AND  MODERN 173 

VIII.  HERMES  TRISMEGISTUS 181 

IX.  JUD^O- ARABIC  METAPHYSICS        191 

X.  LES  APOTRES 197 

XI.  FIVE  LETTERS  ON  THE  (ECUMENICAL  COUNCIL  . .      . .      . .  211 

XII.  APOSTOLIC^:  SEDIS 265 

XIII.  THE  EOMAN  PASSION  DRAMA       285 

XIV.  ON  SEMITIC  LANGUAGES        293 

XV.  ON  THE  TARGUMS 319 

XVI.  ON  THE  SAMARITAN  PENTATEUCH        ..      404 

XVIE.  THE  BOOK  OF  JASHER 440 

XVIII.  EARLY  ARABIC  POETRY 449 

XIX.  ARABIC  POETRY  IN  SPAIN  AND  SICILY       ..      ..  457 


EMANUEL  OSCAK  MENAHEM  DEUTSCH  was  born  at  Neisse  in 
Prussian  Silesia  on  the  28th  of  October,  1829,  of  Jewish 
parents,  whose  family  had  been  settled  there  for  some 
generations. 

In  the  atmosphere  of  his  home  he  breathed  a  certain 
amount  of  intelligence  and  learning,  but  yet  more  of  affection. 
There  are  perhaps  no  people  on  earth  in  whom  the  ties  of 
relationship  are  so  strong  as  among  the  Jews,  and  especially 
among  the  German  Jews ;  the  tenderness  of  the  mother  is 
scarcely  equal  even  to  the  bond  of  close  affection  that  usually 
exists  between  father  and  son.  In  the  Deutsch  family  it 
was  remarkably  powerful,  and  continued  so  to  the  end.  At 
the  age  of  six,  the  young  Emanuel  entered  the  "  Gymnasium" 
of  Neisse,  and  remained  in  it  for  two  years ;  but  at  the  end 
of  this  time  his  father  yielded  to  the  entreaties  of  his  uncle 
David  Deutsch,  then  residing  at  Mislowitz,  and  gave  up  the 
boy's  education  into  his  hands.  This  uncle  was  a  man  of 
great  learning :  he  was  a  Eabbi  who  had  made  the  Talmud 
his  especial  study,  and  had  written  several  scholarly  works. 
The  education  was  a  severe  one  for  so  young  a  student. 
Winter  and  summer  he  had  to  rise  at  five  o'clock,  and  to 
study  without  fire  or  food  for  one  hour  or  two,  until  the  time 
of  the  daily  prayer  had  arrived,  in  which  another  hour  was 
passed.  The  rest  of  the  day,  until  8  P.M.,  was  passed  in  close 


vi  MEMOIK. 

application  to  his  books,  one  quarter  of  an  hour  being  the 
only  time  allowed  for  recreation,  and  about  the  same  for 
exercise  and  fresh  air.  He  used  to  look  back  to  these  years 
with  painful  self-pity,  although  his  attachment  to  his  uncle 
was  profound  and  tender,  and  his  gratitude  to  him  un- 
bounded.1 On  completing  his  thirteenth  year  Emanuel 
returned  to  Neisse,  to  celebrate  his  Bar-mitzva  or  religious 
majority,  when  it  is  the  custom  for  Jewish  lads  to  read  pub- 
licly in  the  Synagogue  a  portion  of  the  lesson  from  Scripture 
on  the  first  following  Sabbath.  The  sentence  that  fell  to  his- 
share  was  this :  "  Get  thee  out  of  thy  country,  and  from  thy 
kindred  and  from  thy  father's  house."  (Gen.  xii.  1.)  He  then 
resumed  his  studies  at  the  Gymnasium,  and  notwithstanding 
his  separation  from  his  uncle,  rejoiced  to  find  himself  again 
at  Neisse,  of  which  he  was  very  fond. 

The  town  is  situated  in  a  broad  valley  watered  by  the 
Neisse :  it  is  a  fortress  of  the  second  rank,  garrisoned  by 
about  5000  soldiers.  Here  is  his  own  account  of  it : — 

"  In  the  most  eastern  part  of  Germany,  in  that  corner  where  llussia, 
Prussia,  and  Austria  meet,  lies  the  province  of  Silesia.  Yery  hardly  con- 
tested i>y  Maria  Theresa,  and  hardly  won  "by  Frederick,  it  now  forms  the 
finest  jewel  in  the  crown  of  Prussia.  The  inhabitants  are  an  industrious, 
intelligent,  and  above  all,  a  merry  people ;  there  is  a  vivacity  in  them 
which  has  earned  for  them  the  epithet  of  the  *  Frenchmen  of  Germany/ 
but  their  good-natured,  childlike  naivete  has  also  made  them  proverbial 
throughout  the  whole  realm.  Less  rigid  than  the  Prussians  of  the  north, 
they  have  more  of  the  Austrian  volubility :  except  where,  close  to  the 
boundaries  of  Russia,  Sclavonic  elements  are  so  largely  mixed  with  the 
populace  as  to  make  them  *  stupid.' " 

The  contrasts  that  struck  him  day  by  day  yet  early  in  his 
youth,  between  the  wit  and  wisdom  he  found  in  his  Hebrew 
literature,  and  these  "stupid"  people  made  an  impression 
upon  him  that  he  often  referred  to  in  after  Kfe;  his  sole 
amusement  seems  to  have  been  watching  the  "  rough,  narrow- 


Dr.  David  Deutsch  cutlived  his  nephew  only  two  mouths. 


MEMOIR.  vii 

brained  peasantry,"  bringing  in  provisions  on  most  primitive 
carts  to  supply  the  garrison  in  trie  "  much-respected  fortress." 

Stimulated  by  his  love  of  learning,  Emanuel  entered  the 
highest  class  of  the  Gymnasium  against  the  wish  of  his 
parents,  for,  in  the  then  unpleasant  state  of  political  affairs 
in  Prussia,  they  not  unnaturally  opposed  his  embracing  a 
learned  profession,  and  would  have  preferred  his  devoting 
himself  to  the  business  of  their  house.  But  this  was  impos- 
sible to  him.  It  is  the  custom  in  the  "high  schools"  of 
Silesia  for  the  pupils  in  the  highest  class  to  attend  for  two 
years ;  until  that  period  is  accomplished  they  are  not  per- 
mitted to  go  up  for  "  Matriculation."  In  this  case,  before  six 
months  had  elapsed,  the  masters  found  that  Emanuel  was 
capable  of  passing,  and  requested  that  he  might  do  so  :  the 
higher  authorities  refused,  on  the  ground  that  no  excep- 
tion to  the  rule  could  be  made  even  for  exceptional  fitness ; 
and  it  was  not  until  petition  after  petition  had  been  presented 
by  the  masters  collectively,  stating  that  they  had  nothing 
more  to  teach  him,  and  representing  the  unfairness  of  keep- 
ing him  at  school,  that  they  yielded  to  the  pressure  put  upon 
them.  He  then  proceeded  to  the  University  of  Berlin,  where 
he  devoted  himself  at  first  chiefly  to  the  study  of  Theology, 
without,  however,  relinquishing  those  Talmudic  studies  to 
which  so  much  of  his  life  had  already  been  devoted.  The 
enormous  mass  of  transcriptions  and  translations  from  the 
Talmud  which  was  found  after  his  death, — beginning  in  the 
handwriting  of  a  child,  and  continued  up  to  within  a  very 
few  years  ago, — almost  seemed  in  itself  the  work  of  an 
ordinary  lifetime. 

He  was  now  just  sixteen ;  and  from  this  time  forth,  like 
many  another  German  student,  he  supported  himself  entirely, 
paying  his  board,  lodging,  and  fees  by  giving  lessons.  A 
year  or  two  after,  some  Judaic  stories  and  poems  published 


viii  MEMOIR. 

in  magazines — written  with  great  elegance  and  full  of 
interest — had  earned  him  florins  enough  for  his  first  excur- 
sion towards  "  Father  Rhine  "  beyond  his  own  land. 

During  his  stay  in  Berlin  he  had  thoroughly  mastered 
English,  and  had  made  extensive  studies  in  English  literature. 
In  1855  Mr.  Albert  Cohen,  of  the  firm  of  Asher  and  Co., 
in  Berlin,  was  commissioned  by  the  British  Museum  to 
recommend  an  assistant  for  the  library  department :  Emanuel 
Deutsch  had  long  been  desirous  of  some  means  of  visiting 
England,  and  when  the  appointment  was  offered  to  him  he 
accepted  it  joyfully.  He  had  then  very  little  idea  that  it 
would  be  more  than  a  temporary  employment.  He  knew  no 
one  in  the  country,  and  little  enough  of  English  ways  and 
habits.  But  he  was  considered  by  others,  and  he  knew  him- 
self to  be  more  than  fit  for  the  office. 

A  fragment  concerning  his  studies,  written  in  1872,  may 
be  here  inserted : 

"  In  magnis  voluisse — is  it  enough  ?  who  among  us  has  not  at  some  time 
or  other  striven  for  some  high  thing  ?  and  the  preparation  for  the  task  .  .  . 
it  would  seem  as  if  this  had  been,  not  rough  hewn,  but  shaped  with  all  the 
wise  deliberation  of  a  kindest  Fate.  Before  I  knew  how  to  read  and  write 
the  language  of  the  land  wherein  I  was  born,  my  lips  were  taught  to 
stammer  the  Aleph-Beth,  and  to  recite  my  prayers  in  the  tongue  of  David. 
As  I  grew  up,  Homer  and  Virgil  stood  side  by  side  on  my  boyish  bookshelf 
with  the  Mishnah  and  the  Midi-ash.  And  before  I  was  inured  in  the 
Akademe  of  Plato  and  his  friends,  it  was  deemed  well  to  steep  my  soul  for 
a  time  absolutely  in  that  ocean  called  the  Talmud  :  and  to  teach  me  fierce 
dialectics  in  the  discussions  of  Eabina  and  Eab  Ashi  before  I  learnt  to 
contrast  the  fierce  lightnings  that  shook  the  rafters  of  Sura  and  Pumbeditha 
with  the  mild,  serene,  ironically  smiling  lips  of  Sokrates.  And  while 
Hengstenbcrg  insisted  with  stentorian  voice  on  every  word  of  Scripture 
being  verbally  inspired,  and  the  Hyksos  being  the  sons  of  Jacob,  Vatke, 
next  door  to  him,  represented  the  furthest  steps  of  the  non-Mosaic  origin 
and  authorship  even  of  the  Ten  Commandments. 

4<  Then  leaving  these  theological  arenas  I  found  myself  at  the  feet  of 
Boeckh,  who,  with  Attic  grace  opened  up  the  arena  of  classic  Hellas, 
making  the  cistce  mysticce,  become  clear  revelations ;  under  his  guidance  I 
saw  that  favoured  branch  of  mankind  at  their  play,  in  their  earnestness,  in 
the  house  and  the  market-place,  in  war  and  peace,  their  slaves,  their 


MEMOIR.  ix 

ivomen  and  children,  their  seers  and  priests,  their  poets  and  poetesses  :  and 
this  while  Meineke  taught  me  Horace  by  the  light  of  Herman  and  Heine. 

"  And  to  open  my  eyes  for  the  greater  features  of  human  strivings,  how 
out  of  barbarism  grew  the  light  and  glory  of  the  Renaissance  and  thence  to 
the  presence  of  our  own  day — and  to  show  the  bright  germs  of  those 
goodly  trees  of  freedom  under  whose  shadows  the  peoples  of  Europe  now 
dwell — was  there  not  Ranke  :  while  Ritter  took  us  "  from  Greenland's  icy 
mountains  to  Sah'ra's  burning  sands,"  and  spoke  of  all  plants,  from  the 
cedars  of  Lebanon  to  the  hyssop  that  grows  in  the  ruins  of  Vizagapatam  ? 
To  enable  me  better  to  understand  the  British  Museum,  the  treatises  on 
the  Mine  and  Thine,  and  the  Gate  of  the  Trover,  was  there  not  Stahl,  the 
brilliant  and  erudite  German  Disraeli,  who  defended  Throne  and  State 
and  a  faith  not  that  of  his  fathers,  and  interpreted  to  us  the  Pandects  and 
the  Institutes  ? 

"Enough  of  those  days  and  the  feasts  spread  before  me:  feasts  of 
erudition,  wisdom,  and  grace,  within  which,  as  the  Talmud  has  it,  the 
mother  of  the  calf  was  yet  more  anxious  to  give  suck  than  was  the  calf 
always  to  drink.  The  evenings  passed,  while  the  mind  was  too  overwrought 
for  midnight  study,  in  sitting  entranced  before  the  noblest  sons  and  daughters 
of  Goethe,  Schiller,  Shakespeare,  and  Sophocles;  or  Beethoven  and 
Mendelssohn  lulled  the  soul  to  blissful  unconsciousness,  or  roused  it  to 
glow  and  enthusiasm  unspoken. 

"  Then  for  nigh  twenty  years  it  was  my  privilege  to  dwell  in  the  very 
midst  of  that  Pantheon  called  the  British  Museum,  the  treasures  whereof, 
be  they  Egyptian,  Homeric,  palimpsest  or  Babylonian  cuneiforms,  the 
mutilated  glories  of  the  Parthenon,  or  the  Etruscan  mysterious  grotesque- 
ness,  were  all  at  my  beck  and  call,  all  days,  all  hours — Alexandria,  Rome , 
Carthage,  Jerusalem,  Sidon,  Tyre,  Athens  .  .  .  ." 

Here  the  fragment  abruptly  ends,  without  having  men- 
tioned v.  Hagen  who  was  his  teacher  in  old  German  poetry 
and  the  "  folk-lore  "  in  which  he  delighted  :  and  Bencke  his 
teacher  in  psychology. 

He  had  joined  the  British  Museum  in  1855.  For  fifteen 
years  with  mighty  ardour  and  magnificent  industry  he  studied 
and  wrote,  wrote  and  studied ;  enjoying  life  among  his 
friends,  yet  more  among  his  books :  shedding  sunshine  where- 
ever  he  went,  attracting  and  attaching  not  a  few.  It  is 
impossible  now  to  collect  all  his  works,  for  he  wrote  lavishly 
and  gave  away '  prodigally,  while  looking  onwards  with  eyes 
fixed  on  the  magnum  opus  that  was  to  be  the  work  of  his 
life — a  treatise  on  the  Talmud,  to  be  followed  by  other 


x  MEMOIE. 

expositions  of  ancient  Jewish  literature.  But  190  essays. 
and  articles  written  for  *  Chambers's  Encyclopedia '  form  in 
themselves  a  goodly  show,  besides  the  articles  from  '  Smith's 
Dictionary  of  the  Bible,'  and  '  Kitto's  Cyclopedia  of  Biblical 
Literature,'  which,  by  the  special  kindness  of  the  editors,  are 
reprinted  in  this  volume.  In  October  1867  the  brief  article 
in  the  '  Quarterly  Review,'  sent  forth  as  an  avant-courrier, 
excited  so  much  attention  both  in  England  and  on  the  Con- 
tinent, that  he  was  at  once  launched,  as  it  were,  from  the 
obscurity  of  a  student  into  a  rather  unenviable  notoriety : 
and  his  time  was  a  good  deal  cut  up  by  the  endless  applica- 
tions for  lectures,  articles,  &c.,  with  which  he  was  besieged. 
Encouraged,  elated,  he  certainly  was;  but  he  worked  on 
steadily  and  had  made  considerable  advances  before  illness 
overtook  him. 

A  proposal  was  made  to  him  at  the  commencement  of  the 
Abyssinian  war  to  accompany  our  army  into  that  country,  as  it 
was  thought  that  some  valuable  manuscripts  and  other 
important  antiquities  might  have  rewarded  the  researches 
of  a  scholar.  For  this  his  knowledge  of  Amharic  and  its  cog- 
nate languages  would  have  peculiarly  fitted  him.  Fortunately 
he  yielded  to  the  advice  of  one  or  two  of  his  friends,  and 
declined  an  appointment  that  would  have  sadly  wasted  his 
valuable  time.  Experience  justified  the  prudence  of  their 
counsels,  since  nothing  of  the  slightest  importance  was  found 
in  the  country. 

But  this  proposal,  and  a  special  invitation,  unsought  by 
him,  from  Nubar  Pasha,  to  witness  the  opening  of  the  Suez 
Canal,  had  presented  the  thoughts  of  travel  in  the  East  so 
closely  to  him,  that  all  the  natural  and  old  yearnings  of  his 
heart  were  too  completely  awakened  to  slumber  again.  An 

1  This  article  was  within  a  year  translated  into  German,  French,  Swedish, 
Eussian,  Danish  and  Dutch. 


MEMOIR.  xi 

official  commission  from  the  British  Museum,  for  the  exami- 
nation of  certain  localities  in  Cyprus  and  other  places,  had 
been  suggested,  and  he  was  keen  to  go :  he  therefore 
earnestly  requested  the  authorities  to  extend  his  annual 
leave  from  four  weeks  to  eight,  by  uniting  the  leave  of  two 
years,  to  enable  him  to  visit  the  Holy  Land,  even  offering 
to  forego  his  salary  if  necessary.  He  obtained  ten  weeks 
leave,  and  started  7th  March  1869,  returning  10th  May. 
Unhappily  the  journey  was  too  rapid  and  fatiguing  even 
for  his  strength :  with  but  little  money  at  his  command 
he  underwent  many  hardships,  and  it  is  believed  that  he 
there  laid  the  foundation  of  the  disease  of  which  he  died. 
But  in  spite  of  these  he  enjoyed  it  all :  "  the  sights  and 
sounds  of  the  real  East — the  full  splendours  of  the  days 
and  nights — the  trees  and  flowers,  the  holy  stones,  the 
wild  fragrances " — worked  up  his  ardent  nature  into  an 
enthusiasm  in  which  all  the  lofty  patriotism  of  his  race, 
all  the  passionate  love  of  his  fervid  Oriental  nature, 
and  all  the  poetry  of  his  artist  heart,  found  vent.  He 
dated  his  first  letter  from  the  shores  of  Palestine  "The 
East:  all  my  wild  yearnings  fulfilled  at  last!"  Indeed, 
he  was  himself  astonished  at  the  emotion  that  choked  him 
when  he  found  himself  among  his  own  people  at  the  Wailing- 
place  in  Jerusalem,  and  he  could  seldom  speak  of  it  after- 
wards without  tears.  "And  I,  too,  in  Phosnicia!"  Fatigue 
and  pain  vanished  when  he  beheld  the  Phoenician  mason's 
marks,  some  of  which  his  eyes  were  the  first  to  distinguish 
on  the  walls  of  Sidon  and  Jerusalem. 

But  the  very  intensity  of  his  enjoyment  helped  to  wear 
him  out.  On  his  return  he  drew  up  a  valuable  and  most 
interesting  report  of  his  journey  for  the  Trustees  of  the 
British  Museum,  and  delivered  at  least  a  dozen  lectures, 
chiefly  on  the  subject  of  Phoenicia,  in  various  parts  of  the 


xii  MEMOIR. 

country.  Early  in  the  autumn  he  fell  into  a  state  of  deep 
depression,  partly  from  the  fatigue  of  great  overwork,1  partly 
from  the  loss  of  very  dear  friends,  and  partly  from  the 
approach  of  illness  of  which  he  was  then  unconscious,  but  of 
which  one  premonitory  symptom  (almost  entire  sleeplessness) 
had  come  upon  him.  In  December  he  wrote  thus : 

" if  it  was  not  for  this,  I  think  I  should  long  ago  have  given  up 

the  strife,  and  betaken  myself  to  some  quiet  corner  to  wait  in  patience  and 
meekness  for  what  the  voice  would  say.  And  if  it  found  me  an  unworthy 
vessel,  I  should  at  least  have  peace  within  and  peace  without.  .  .  .  But — 
I  have  certain  words  in  my  possession  which  have  been  given  me  that  they 
might  be  said  to  others,  few  or  many.  There  is  within  me  the  whole 
terrible  sum  of  throes  and  woes  which  made  Rebecca,  I  believe,  cry  out 
against  her  double  blessing.  I  know  also  that  I  shall  not  find  peace 
or  rest  until  I  have  said  my  whole  say.  And  yet  I  cannot  do  it.  And  I 
yearn  for  things  which  I  see,  and  which  might  have  been  mine,  and  would 
have  been  blessing  and  sunshine,  and  the  cooling  dew  to  the  small  germs 
within  me ; — and  yet !  and  yet !  I  know  that  I  ought  not  to  look  to  the 
right  or  to  the  left ;  that  I  ought  to  be  resigned ;  that  I  ought  to  fight 
down  manfully  every  tear  that  wells  up  in  my  lonely  heart,  and  that 
I  ought  to  look  but  to  the  distant  stars  and  work  on  ; — but  I  break  down 
occasionally,  and  I  want  to  know  the  Reason  Why.  And  if  a  goodly  flame 
shoots  up,  there  are  also  so  many  ashes  rolling  down  besides.  And  the 
ashes  last  longer  than  the  flame — so  much  longer !  It  is  not  merely 
the  results  of  hard  and  tedious  dryasdusty  investigations  which  I  carry 
about  with  me  and  write  into  books,  but  those  certain  human  problems 
which  underlie  them  and  give  them  tone  and  colour,  and  have  begotten  all 
those  ancient  matters,  and  which  are  so  wondrously  like  the  problems 
with  which  we  do  battle  and  are  worsted.  It  is  the  continuity  and 
solidarity  of  refined  mankind  which  I  have  in  my  mind,  and  the  sameness 
of  its  achievements,  of  its  loves  and  hatreds,  and  prayers  and  curses,  and 
conceptions  of  what  is  good  and  evil,  and  godly,  positive  and  negative ; 
and  reflecting  upon  all  this,  I  find  that  I  have  nothing  more  to  say — and 
ought  to  lay  down  a  pen,  which  properly  speaking  I  have  never  taken  up. 
But  all  this  is  so  confused  and  wild.  .  .  .  and  I  cannot  take  comfort  in  the 
thought  of  death, — I  want  to  live — there  is  so  much  life,  hot,  full  life 
within — that  it  shrinks  from  darkness  and  deadness.  I  envy  those  who 
can  fly  on  the  mind's  wings  to  this  harbour  of  refuge ;  I  cannot  follow,  but 
keep  tossing  outside  in  my  broken  craft,  through  foam,  and  rock,  and 
mist." 


1  Just  at    this    time    he  brought  out  the   article  on  tl  Islam "  in  the 
*  Quarterly  Review,'  and  the  letters  on  the  (Ecumenical  Council  in  the  Times. 


MEMOIR.  xiii 


And  again : 


"  I  work  hard  :  but  often  I  am  on  the  brink  of  giving  up.  To  resusci- 
tate a  time  which  perhaps  sifter  all  had  better  remain  dead,  is  a  rash  task. 
Who  knows  ?  perhaps  after  all  I  may  be  only  and  really  in  a  dream,  while 
I  fancy  I  see  golden  towers  and  palaces  gleaming  in  the  dark  blue  depths, 
streets  and  market-places  crowded  with  a  motley  crew — Roman,  Greek, 
Byzantine,  Jewish,  Indian,  and  the  rest — hearing  the  vague,  wild  hum  of 
strange  dead  voices,  and  seeing  above  all  the  weird  strained  look  in  their 
eyes  which  prays  and  implores  unceasingly — Redeem  us  !  You  remember 
the  "  Doctor,  sind  Sie  des  Teufels  ?"  with  which  the  captain  caught  hold 
of  Heine's  boots  as  he  was  leaning  over  the  '  Schiffsrand,'  looking  down- 
wards !  But  then  he  espied  Her  who  had  run  away  from  him  some 
hundred  years  before,  and  kept  hiding  down  below.  Whom  am  I  looking 
for  ?  And  what  will  it  avail  anybody  when  I  have  proved  to  ocular 
demonstration  that  they  had  wisdom,  and  prowess,  and  h'onesty,  and  wit 
and  humour  (which  is  more),  and  passions  and  love  in  those  buried  days  ? 
For,  after  all,  this  is  the  end  of  all  investigation  into  history  or  art :  they 
were  even  as  we  are.  Why  therefore  not  be  satisfied  with  this  general 
result  ?" 

And  a  little  later : — 

"  For  a  long  time  now  I  have  been  frozen  in  every  way.  There  is  more 
struggle,  more  despair,  more  yearning,  and  more  of  helpless,  hopeless,  blind 
and  dumb  crying  out,  than  even  you  have  ever  conceived.  ...  As  I  am 
pondering  over  the  fates  of  that  creed  of  which  I  have  traced  the  germs, 
Islam,  and  tried  to  see,  to  show  the  man  who  begot  it  visibly — as  I  work 
on  with  my  metaphysical  Talmud-developments,  and  see  how  wasted  all: 
that  grace,  and  keenness,  and  catholicity  of  the  minority  has  been  on  the 
majority,  and  what  things  of  it  all  have  become  the  heirlooms  of 
*  Humanity,'  and  what  others  have  been  chilled  into  everlasting  monu- 
ments of  ice,  seen  and  marvelled  at  by  a  few  when  the  sun  rises  or  sets, 
but  otherwise  useless, — as  further  I  contemplated  what  kind  of  thing  it  is 
under  which  mankind  feels  happiest  (for  there  never  were  such  glorious 
times  for  the  world  at  large),  then  my  heart  grows  sad  and  sadder  within 
me — and  I  feel  what  many  a  braver,  stouter  heart  has  felt :  the  futility  of 
my  own  self-sacrifice.  For  it  is  that.  I  might  be  a  thousand  times  more 
useful  to  my  immediate  friends  by  not  giving  myself  up  thus  utterly  to 
labours  which,  taken  all  in  all,  will  amount  to  but  very,  very  little,  in  the 
long  run.  I  may  prove  and  bring  out  a  few  details :  I  may  teach  a 
few — and  these  generally  don't  need  to  be  taught  this  —that  man  is  not 
bad  from  beginning,  and  certainly  not  because  he  does  not  happen  to  dress 
and  eat  quite  in  the  approved  fashion.  But  after  all :  what  is  the  having 
done  this  compared  to  a  real,  good,  active,  useful  life,  when  days  mean 
days,  and  nights  mean  nights  :  a  life  not  a  prey  to  all  kinds  of  haunting 
things,  and  one  which  has  a  real — not  a  so-called  ideal — aim  and 
purpose  ?" 


xiv  MEMOIR. 

In  the  spring  of  1870  the  frightful  struggle  of  his 
naturally  robust  constitution  began  against  the  advancing 
disease. 

It  is  not  very  easy  to  sketch  the  character  of  Mr.  Deutsch, 
but  we  would  fain  draw  some  kind  of  portrait  of  him.  He 
was  of  the  Oriental  type  of  Jews :  eyes  and  hair  of  the 
darkest,  with  the  flexible,  ever-varying,  expressive  mouth 
of  the  Israelite;  a  face  the  reverse  of  handsome,  but  one 
that  lighted  up  under  the  glow  of  an  enthusiastic  nature 
with  a  brightness  that  won  the  sympathies  of  the  coldest 
listener.  He  was  very  small  of  stature,  but  sturdy  and 
strong  in  make ;  and,  until  the  last  three  years  of  his  life, 
blessed  with  robust  health  and  spirits  that  no  work  seemed 
to  tire,  no  trials  to  exhaust.  Unfortunately  abundant 
health  often  induces  entire  indifference  to  the  commonest 
rules  of  prudence  or  hygiene.  With  insatiable  thirst  for 
knowledge  and  vast  energy  in  acquiring  it,  he  lacked  only 
that  grand  self-control  which  enables  a  man  to  live  ;  without 
which  the  finer  the  power,  the  briefer  its  tenure.  Except 
when  induced  to  dine  out,  he  seldom  "  found  time  "  to  dine  at 
all ;  and  the  few  hours  of  sleep  he  permitted  himself  to  take 
were  insufficient  to  restore  the  waste  of  the  day.  Possibly 
he  might  have  struggled  through  these  physical  difficulties, 
had  he  had  rest  within ;  but  his  sensitive  nature  gave  him  no 
real  repose,  and  a  certain  loneliness  of  heart  that  frequently 
hangs  round  the  transplanted  Jew,  helped  to  wear  out  the  ap- 
parently stout  material  of  which  he  was  made.  Mr.  Deutsch 
was  absolutely  free  from  all  sentimentality  and  mental 
hysteria :  his  mind  was  cast  in  a  manly  and  cheerful  mould : 
he  was  brimming  over  with  humour  and  playfulness  which 
continued  almost  to  the  very  end ;  but  with  all  this,  the 
tinge  of  melancholy  which  overshadows  nearly  all  true 
Orientals,  cast  a  thin  veil  over  him  that  naturally  darkened 


MEMOIR.  XV 

with  the  loss  of  health  and  the  beginning  of  a  terrible 
disease.  Very  proud  by  nature,  his  circumstances  in 
England  made  him  suffer  painfully.  He  felt  his  attain- 
ments to  be  far  beyond  his  position,  and  the  galling  official 
restrictions,  petty  rules,  and  annoying  humiliations  to  which 
he  was  subjected,  kept  him  during  his  last  few  years  in  a 
state  of  constant  irritation,  and  unquestionably  hastened  his 
end.  A  little  more  bodily  ease  and  the  comforts  due  to  men 
in  the  prime  of  life,  no  longer  schoolboys :  a  little  more 
freedom  from  care,  and  worthy  consideration  by  the  high 
powers  of  the  country  he  had  adopted,  bestowed  in  time, 
would,  without  any  doubt,  have  saved  to  us  that  mine  of 
exceptional  knowledge,  that  rare  combination  of  gifts  whose 
premature  loss  we  now,  too  late,  deplore. 

Perhaps  his  chief  external  characteristic  was  brightness. 
As  long  as  health  was  granted  to  him,  no  amount  of  work  or 
fatigue  ever  troubled  his  gaiete  de  coeur,  or  dimmed  the 
sparkling  brightness  of  his  society.  He  readily  threw  him- 
self into  the  interests  and  occupations  of  others,  with  helpful 
hearty  kindness,  of  which  many  and  many  reaped  the  full 
advantage;  for,  as  his  studies  had  been  in  some  degree 
peculiar,  he  was  continually  applied  to  for  information. 
Though  sensitive  to  a  fault  he  was  not  easily  offended,  but 
when  once  he  had  made  a  friend  it  was  rare  for  him  to  lose 
him.  During  the  commencement  of  his  illness  this  sensitive- 
ness increased  upon  him,  and  caused  him  not  only  to 
magnify  slights  and  to  fret  over  them  with  intense  bitterness, 
but  also  to  fancy  them  where  none  were  intended.  Shrink- 
ing from  all  around  him,  and  rigidly  determined  to  bear 
his  pain  alone  and  in  secret,  he  could  not  be  persuaded  to 
see  that  some  motive  must  be  attributed  to  explain  his  with- 
drawal from  his  friends;  and,  while  he  resolutely  concealed 
himself  from  them,  he  sorrowed  bitterly  over  their  neglect 


XVI 


MEMOIR. 


of  him.  But  all  this  was  only  the  not  unnatural  result  of 
disease  and  pain,  and  his  heart  never  wavered  in  loyalty  to 
those  who  had  loved,  or  been  true  friends  to,  him.  Ambitious 
he  certainly  was :  but  it  was  not  the  poor  ambition  of  per- 
sonal prominence ;  it  was  only  the  ardent  aspiration  of  a 
noble  nature  for  the  attainment  of  a  lofty  ideal ;  and  in  the 
very  worst  of  his  sufferings  his  keenest  pang  and  bitterest 
trial  was  the  despair  of  accomplishing  the  work  he  had  laid 
out  for  himself, — the  object  of  his  whole  life,  and  the  idol 
of  his  heart. 

We  have  said  that  he  was  a  proud  man.  Enjoying  a 
noble  pride  in  his  own  gifts,  he  suffered  also  from  the  very 
foolish  pride  of  not  confessing  to  physical  weakness.  To  the 
very  last  he  kept  from  all  but  two  or  three — not  more — of 
his  most  intimate  friends,  even  from  his  daily  companions  in 
office,  the  knowledge  of  his  failure  of  health.  Attacked  by  a 
disease1  that  entailed  agonies  of  pain,  he  yet  bore  it  with  a 
fortitude  very  rarely  equalled :  and  not  only  dragged  himself 
to  his  daily  work  at  the  Museum,  but  endured  the  terrible 
tortures  arising  from  the  necessarily  active  life  there,  with  an 
heroic  fortitude  that  was  the  unceasing  amazement  of  his  sur- 
geon and  nurse.  Without  any  private  means,  and  frequently 
denying  himself  in  order  to  send  assistance  to  the  old  family 
at  home,  giving  up  work  meant  living  on  the  kindness  of  his 
friends :  a  suffering  more  painful  to  him  to  endure  than  his 
bodily  illness;  and  it  was  exquisite  pain  to  him  to  accept 
enough  to  carry  him  at  last  to  the  warmer  climate  he  had 
longed  so  earnestly  when  in  health  to  see.  Through  the 
one  fault,  so  common  in  the  noblest  natures,  he  was  just 
too  proud  to  be  able  to  take  willingly  even  from  those  who 


1  Cancer ;  but  this  disease  was 
never  suspected  during  his  life,  and 
only  discovered  in  a  post-mortem 


examination.  He  had  been  treated 
for  other  almost  equally  painful  dis- 
eases, and  endured  several  operations. 


MEMOIR.  xvii 

loved  him;  he  had  lived  too  much  alone  and  in  exile  to 
enjoy  fully  the  happiness  of  being  grateful  to  others  for 
everything. 

It  will  be  readily  seen  even  from  this  brief  sketch  what  an 
immeasurable  power  of  industry  he  possessed.  He  worked 
as  almost  only  a  German  can  work.  Studying,  labouring  on 
all  sides,  what  he  acquired  was  really  marvellous.  He  was 
extraordinarily  well  acquainted  with  English  literature  in 
all  its  varied  styles  and  periods,  enjoying  it  with  fine  taste 
and  judgment.  But  his  chief  study  was  of  Indo-European 
and  Shemitic  languages — Sanskrit,  Chaldaic,  Aramaic,  and 
others.  The  study  of  his  heart  was  Phoenician,  and  had 
his  life  been  spared  he  would  have  concentrated  all  his 
energies  upon  that  and  Cuneiform.  For  this  study,  his  un- 
failing natural  accuracy — the  backbone  of  a  true  scholar — 
peculiarly  adapted  him.  It  was  truly  said  of  him,  "  There 
is  probably  no  one  in  England  who  possesses,  to  an  equal 
degree,  the  varied  knowledge  combined  with  the  intense 
sympathy  for  art,  nature,  and  humanity  that  distinguished 
the  deceased  scholar."  Neither  did  "  the  society  which 
admired  him  understand  the  deep  thought  that  underlaid 
his  light  sarcasms,  the  tremendous  labour  that  resulted  in  his 
least  writings,  and  the  wealth  of  knowledge  of  which  his 
chief  work  showed  but  a  glimpse." 

He  had  the  fervid  temperament  of  a  poet,  the  tender 
heart  of  a  woman,  and  a  certain  simplicity  of  nature  that 
broke  out  occasionally  as  in  a  child.  Intense  in  everything, 
he  carried  out  a  purity  of  life  that  showed  no  common  self- 
restraint  in  one  so  ardent  and  so  warm  of  heart ;  religiously 
blameless  to  the  last.  He  was  reverent  without  superstition, 
and  free  from  prejudice  notwithstanding  his  earnest,  pas- 
sionate attachment  to  his  country  and  to  his  people. 

In  the  autumn  of  1872  a  despairing  longing  for  warmth 


xviii  MEMOIR. 

and  sunshine  came  upon  him;  "he  would  die  happy  if  he 
could  only  once  more  hear  the  hum  of  the  East : "  he 
"almost  thought  a  draught  of  the  Nile  would  cure  the 
incurable  ! "  Means  were  found  through  the  kindness  of  his 
many  friends,  and  collected  unknown  to  him ;  six  months' 
leave  was  granted  by  the  Trustees  of  the  British  Museum : 
and  on  the  18th  of  December  he  left  England  with  a 
careful  attendant  for  Italy. 

And  Italy  seemed  to  bring  him  a  sort  of  resurrection ;  the 
Egyptian  gallery  at  Turin  was  enjoyed  with  delight :  then 
came  "  Florence,  the  Andante  to  the  vast  second  and  third 
movements  of  Rome,  while  Naples  was  the  final  Cantabile — 
if  there  be  such  a  thing  in  this  symphony  of  glory,  Italy. 
Verily,"  he  wrote,  "I  live  again,  albeit  stricken  yet,  but 
filled  with  a  great  happiness."  He  could  see  but  little ; 
but  that  little  he  saw  with  his  usual  intensity,  and  fell  to 
copying  inscriptions  and  taking  notes  as  if  a  new  life  was 
going  to  begin  for  him.  He  left  Brindisi  on  the  6th  of 
January,  and  arrived  at  Alexandria  on  the  10th.  Unfor- 
tunately the  winter  in  Egypt  was  exceptionally  damp  and 
cold:  Cairo  was  all  in  wild  confusion,  overcrowded  with 
visitors  for  the  Viceroy's  fetes  on  the  marriages  of  his  sons 
and  daughters,  and  no  accommodation  was  possible  for  an 
invalid.  He  wrote  of  the  u  piercing  cold  "  under  which  he 
was  "  shivering,"  and  said  that  the  "ray  of  hope"  which 
had  shone  so  brightly  on  him  in  Italy  was  now  almost 
extinguished ;  adding,  "  I  sometimes  cannot  and  will  not 
realise  the  terrible  truth  :  there  is  so  immensely  much  of 
life  within  me  yet,  and  my  will  is  so  savagely  strong  at 
times,  and  there  is  oh !  so  much,  so  much  for  rue  to  do  in  all 
directions — surely  it  cannot  be  that  all  this  is  the  last 
nicker!" 

At  length,  after  many  delays,  he  got  a  place  in  a  crowded 


MEMOIE.  xix 

steamer,  where  lie  suffered  terribly  from  the  dirt  and  dis- 
comfort. Yet,  although  his  spirits  had  now  almost  com- 
pletely failed  him,  he  wrote  with  enjoyment  of  the  passing 
scenes  "on  the  Nile — palm-groves,  black  Nubians,  pelicans 
on  alternate  legs,  barren  hills  fringed  with  green  embroidery, 
castellated  mud  dwellings,  big  sugar-cane  stretches :  this  on 
both  sides.  Under  me  the  river  rolling  its  yellow  mystic 
waters,  and  around  me  there  waves  such  a  stream  of  life." 
At  Luxsor  he  found  comfortable  quarters  in  the  house  of 
the  Austrian  Consul,  from  whom  he  received  the  utmost 
kindness.  But  here  he  grew  rapidly  worse,  and  his 
strength  declined  day  by  day,  until  he  became  unable  to 
leave  his  bed.  '•'  Yet  all  this  while,"  he  wrote,  in  nearly  his 
last  letter,  "  my  brain  is  teeming  with  work — work  that 
seems  cut  out  as  by  special  primeval  arrangement  for  me 
and  me  only.  The  tragical  irony  of  my  failure  of  life  cuts 
me  to  pieces.  A  whole  flood  of  thoughts  old  and  new — of 
suggestions,  facts,  and  conceits  storm  in  upon  me  with  every 
breath  I  draw  here,  at  every  stone  I  stumble  over,  at  every 
single  sign  and  token  of  this  boundless  tomb-world  wherein 
lie  hidden  how  many  civilizations  ?  the  very  door  of  my 
house  is  formed  out  of  a  mummy-case  inscribed  with  part  of 
the  Ritual  of  the  Dead  in  fading  hieroglyphics !  oh,  the 
vast  accumulation  that  has  come  into  my  brain  from  all  I 
see  around  me ! — alas  !  they  are  but  day-dreams  now  — 
golden  visions  wherewith  my  too  vivid  imagination  beguiles 
the  long  drawn-out  days  and  nights  of  keen  distress." 

He  got  back  to  Cairo  on  the  30th  of  March,  but  after 
three  weeks  of  intense  suffering  removed  to  the  Prussian 
Deaconesses'  Hospital  at  Alexandria,  where  a  comfortable 
apartment  was  provided  for  him,  and  where  he  had  the 
society  of  one  kind  friend  as  well  as  the  careful  watching  of 
the  good  Sisters.  He  still  hoped  to  reach  England  again, 


xx  MEMOIR. 

and  had  a  berth  engaged  for  him  in  the  P.  and  0.  steamer 
for  the  7th  of  May.  But  when  that  day  came  he  was  already 
sinking  rapidly,  and  early  on  the  morning  of  the  12th  of 
May,  1873,  he  died. 

"  I  only  wish  for  peace,"  were  nearly  his  last  words. 

He  was  buried  on  the  following  morning  in  the  Jewish 
cemetery  at  Alexandria. 

A  stone  of  polished  red  granite  now  covers  his  last  resting- 
place,  bearing  four  inscriptions.  The  Hebrew  one  was 
written  by  Dr.  Hermann  Adler,  Rabbi,  and  is  as  follows, 
literally  translated : 

Here  is  entombed  the  well-beloved — whose  heart  was  burning  with 
good  things,  and  whose  pen  was  the  pen  of  a  ready  writer— Menahem, 
son  of  Abraham  Deutsch,  whom  the  Lord  preserve !  He  was  born  at 
Neisse,  on  the  1st  Marheshvan,  5590  A.M.,  and  departed  from  this  world 
in  Alexandria,  on  Monday  the  9th  lyar,  in  the  year  '  Arise,  shine ;  for 
thy  light  is  come.'  May  his  soul  be  bound  up  in  the  bond  of  life  ! 

To  explain  the  quotation  here  given,  it  will  be  remem- 
bered that  every  letter  in  the  Hebrew  alphabet  has  its 
numerical  as  well  as  its  lingual  value;  dates  are  therefore 
almost  always  written  upon  tombstones  embodied  in  some 
text  of  Scripture  conveying  the  corresponding  numerals  in  a 
chrono-grammatic  form.  In  this  case  the  date  of  Menahem 
Deutsch's  death  happens  to  form  the  above  text  from  Isaiah 
Ix.  1 — an  apt  quotation  which  touchingly  describes  in  the 
language  of  his  own  people  that  ardent  aspiration  after 
light  which  characterized  his  whole  life. 

The  English  inscription,  literally  translated  also  into 
German  and  Arabic,  says : 

Here  lie  the  earthly  remains 

of  the  beloved 

EMANUEL  OSCAR  MENAHEM  DEUTSCH, 
for  eighteen  years  employed  in  the  British  Museum. 

Born  at  Neisse  October  28,  1829. 
Died  at  Alexandria,  May  12,  1873. 


I. 

THE   TALMUD.1 


WHAT  is  the  Talmud  ? 

What  is  the  nature  of  that  strange  production  of  which  the 
name,  imperceptibly  almost,  is  beginning  to  take  its  place 
among  the  household  words  of  Europe  ?  Turn  where  we  may 
in  the  realms  of  modern  learning,  we  seem  to  be  haunted  by 
it.  We  meet  with  it  in  theology,  in  science,  even  in  general 
literature,  in  their  highways  and  in  their  byeways.  There  is 
not  a  handbook  to  all  or  any  of  the  many  departments  of 
biblical  lore,  sacred  geography,  history,  chronology,  numis- 
matics, and  the  rest,  but  its  pages  contain  references  to  the 
Talmud.  The  advocates  of  all  religious  opinions  appeal  to 
its  dicta.  Nay,  not  only  the  scientific  investigators  of 
Judaism  and  Christianity,  but  those  of  Mohammedanism 
and  Zoroastrianism,  turn  to  it  in  their  dissections  of  dogma 
and  legend  and  ceremony.  If,  again,  we  take  up  any  recent 
volume  of  archaeological  or  philological  transactions,  whether 
we  light  on  a  dissertation  on  a  Phoenician  altar,  or  a 
cuneiform  tablet,  Babylonian  weights,  or  Sassanian  coins,  we 
are  certain  to  find  this  mysterious  word.  Nor  is  it  merely 
the  restorers  of  the  lost  idioms  of  Canaan  and  Assyria,  of 
Himyar  and  Zoroastrian  Persia,  that  appeal  to  the  Talmud 
for  assistance ;  but  the  modern  schools  of  Greek  and  Latin 
philology  are  beginning  to  avail  themselves  of  the  classical 
and  postclassical  materials  that  lie  scattered  through  it. 
Jurisprudence,  in  its  turn,  has  been  roused  to  the  fact  that, 
apart  from  the  bearing  of  the  Talmud  on  the  study  of  the 
Pandects  and  the  Institutes,  there  are  also  some  of  those 
very  laws  of  the  Medes  and  Persians — hitherto  but  a  vague 


1  This  article  appeared  in  the  'Quarterly  He  view '  for    October,    18G7, 
vol.  cxxiii.,  No.  246'. 


2  THE  TALMUD. 

sound — hidden  away  in  its  labyrinths.  And  so  too  with 
medicine,  astronomy,  mathematics,  and  the  rest.  The 
history  of  these  sciences,  during  that  period  over  which  the 
composition  of  the  Talmud  ranges — and  it  ranges  over  about 
a  thousand  years — can  no  longer  be  written  without  some 
reference  to  the  items  preserved,  as  in  a  vast  buried  city,  in 
this  cyclopean  work.  Yet,  apart  from  the  facts  that  belong 
emphatically  to  these  respective  branches,  it  contains  other 
facts,  of  larger  moment  still:  facts  bearing  upon  human 
culture  in  its  widest  sense.  Day  by  day  there  are  excavated 
from  these  mounds  pictures  of  many  countries  and  many 
periods.  Pictures  of  Hellas  and  Byzantium,  Egypt  and 
Home,  Persia  and  Palestine ;  of  the  temple  and  the  forum, 
war  and  peace, joy  and  mourning;  pictures  teeming  with 
life,  glowing  with  colour. 

These  are,  indeed,  signs  of  the  times.  A  mighty  change 
has  come  over  us.  We,  children  of  this  latter  age,  are, 
above  all  things,  utilitarian.  We  do  not  read  the  Koran, 
the  Zend  Avesta,  the  Yedas,  with  the  sole  view  of  refuting 
them.  We  look  upon  all  literature,  religious,  legal,  and 
otherwise,  whensoever  and  wheresoever  produced,  as  part 
and  parcel  of  humanity.  We,  in  a  manner,  feel  a  kind  of 
responsibility  for  it.  We  seek  to  understand  the  phase  of 
culture  which  begot  these  items  of  our  inheritance,  the  spirit 
that  moves  upon  their  face.  And  while  we  bury  that  which 
is  dead  in  them,  we  rejoice  in  that  which  lives  in  them.  We 
enrich  our  stores  of  knowledge  from  theirs,  we  are  stirred 
by  their  poetry,  we  are  moved  to  high  and  holy  thoughts 
when  they  touch  the  divine  chord  in  our  hearts. 

In  the  same  human  spirit  we  now  speak  of  the  Talmud. 
There  is  even  danger  at  hand  that  this  chivalresque  feeling — 
one  of  the  most  touching  characteristics  of  our  times — which 
is  evermore  prompting  us  to  offer  holocausts  to  the  Manes  of 
those  whom  former  generations  are  thought  to  have  wronged, 
may  lead  to  its  being  extolled  somewhat  beyond  its  merit. 
As  these  ever  new  testimonies  to  its  value  crowd  upon  us, 
we  might  be  led  into  exaggerating  its  importance  for  the 
history  of  mankind.  Yet  an  old  adage  of  its  own  says  : 


THE  TALMUD.  3 

"Above  all  things,  study.  Whether  for  the  sake  of  learning 
or  for  any  other  reason,  study.  For,  whatever  the  motives 
that  impel  you  at  first,  you  will  very  soon  love  study  for  its 
own  sake."  And  thus  even  exaggerated  expectations  of  the 
treasure-trove  in  the  Talmud  will  have  their  value,  if  they 
lead  to  the  study  of  the  work  itself. 

For,  let  us  say  it  at  once,  these  tokens  of  its  existence, 
that  appear  in  many  a  new  publication,  are,  for  the  most 
part,  but  will-o'-the-wisps.  At  first  sight  one  would  fancy 
that  there  never  was  a  book  more  popular,  or  that  formed 
more  exclusively  the  mental  centre  of  modern  scholars, 
Orientalists,  theologians,  or  jurists.  What  is  the  real  truth  ? 
Paradoxical  as  it  may  seem,  there  never  was  a  book  at  once 
more  universally  neglected  and  more  universally  talked  of. 
Well  may  we  forgive  Heine,  when  we  read  the  glowing 
description  of  the  Talmud  contained  in  his  "  Romancero," 
for  never  having  even  seen  the  subject  of  his  panegyrics.  Like 
his  countryman  Schiller,  who,  pining  vainly  for  one  glimpse 
of  the  Alps,  produced  the  most  glowing  and  faithful  picture 
of  them,  so  he,  with  the  poet's  unerring  instinct,  gathered 
truth  from  hearsay  and  description.  But  how  many  of  these 
ubiquitous  learned  quotations  really  flow  from  the  fountain- 
head?  Too  often  and  too  palpably  it  is  merely — to  use 
Samson's  agricultural  simile — those  ancient  and  well- worked 
heifers,  the  "Tela  ignea  Satanse,"  the  "Abgezogener 
Schlangenbalg,"  and  all  their  venomous  kindred,  which  are 
once  more  being  dragged  to  the  plough  by  some  of  the 
learned.  We  say  the  learned :  for  as  to  the  people  at  large, 
often  as  they  hear  the  word  now,  we  firmly  believe  that 
numbers  of  them  still  hold,  with  that  erudite  Capucin  friar, 
Henricus  Seynensis,  that  the  Talmud  is  not  a  book,  lut  a  man. 
"  Ut  narrat  Eabbinus  Talmud  "—"As  says  Rabbi  Talmud  "— 
cries  he,  and  triumphantly  clinches  his  argument ! 

And  of  those  who  know  that  it  is  not  a  Rabbi,  how  many 
are  there  to  whom  it  conveys  any  but  the  vaguest  of  notions  ? 
Who  wrote  it  ?  What  is  its  bulk  ?  Its  date  ?  Its  contents  ? 
Its  birthplace  ?  A  contemporary  lately  called  it  "  a  sphinx, 
towards  which  all  men's  eyes  are  directed  at  this  hour,  some 

B  2 


4  THE  TALMUD. 

with  eager  curiosity,  some  with  vague  anxiety."  But  why 
not  force  open  its  lips  ?  How  much  longer  are  we  to  live  by 
quotations  alone,  quotations  a  thousand  times  used,  a 
thousand  times  abused  ? 

Where,  however,  are  we  to  look  even  for  primary  instruc- 
tion? Where  learn  the  story  of  the  book,  its  place  in 
literature,  its  meaning  and  purport,  and,  above  all,  its 
relation  to  ourselves  ? 

If  we  turn  to  the  time-honoured  "  Authorities,"  we  shall 
mostly  find  that,  in  their  eagerness  to  serve  some  cause,  they 
have  torn  a  few  pieces  off  that  gigantic  living  body ;  and 
they  have  presented  to  us  these  ghastly  anatomical  prepara- 
tions, twisted  and  mutilated  out  of  all  shape  and  semblance, 
saying,  Behold,  this  is  the  book  !  Or  they  have  done  worse. 
They  have  not  garbled  their  samples,  but  have  given  them 
exactly  as  they  found  them ;  and  then  stood  aside,  pointing 
at  them  with  jeering  countenance.  For  their  samples  were 
ludicrous  and  grotesque  beyond  expression.  But  these  wise 
and  pious  investigators  unfortunately  mistook  the  gurgoyles, 
those  grinning  stone  caricatures  that  mount  their  thousand 
years'  guard  over  our  cathedrals,  for  the  gleaming  statues  of 
the  Saints  within ;  and,  holding  them  up  to  mockery  and 
derision,  they  cried,  These  be  thy  gods,  0  Israel ! 

Let  us  not  be  misunderstood.  When  we  complain  of 
the  lack  of  guides  to  the  Talmud,  we  do  not  wish  to  be 
ungrateful  to  those  great  and  earnest  scholars  whose  names 
are  familiar  to  every  student,  and  whose  labours  have  been 
ever  present  to  our  mind.  For,  though  in  the  whole  realm 
of  learning  there  is  scarcely  a  single  branch  of  study  to  be 
compared  for  its  difficulty  to  the  Talmud,  yet,  if  a  man 
had  time,  and  patience,  and  knowledge,  there  is  absolutely 
no  reason  why  he  should  not,  up  and  down  ancient  and 
modern  libraries,  gather  most  excellent  hints  from  essays  and 
treatises,  monographs  and  sketches,  in  books  and  periodicals 
without  number,  by  dint  of  which,  aided  by  the  study  of  the 
work  itself,  he  might  arrive  at  some  conclusion  as  to  its 
essence  and  tendencies,  its  origin  and  its  development.  Yet, 
so  far  as  we  know,  that  work,  every  step  of  which,  it  must  be 


THE  TALMUD.  5 

confessed,  is  beset  with  fatal  pitfalls,  has  not  yet  been  done 
for  the  world  at  large.  It  is  for  a  very  good  reason  that  we 
have  placed  nothing  but  the  name  of  the  Talmud  itself  at 
the  head  of  our  paper.  We  have  sought  far  and  near  for 
some  one  special  book  on  the  subject,  which  we  might  make 
the  theme  of  our  observations — a  book  which  should  not 
merely  be  a  garbled  translation  of  a  certain  twelfth  century 
"Introduction,"  interspersed  with  vituperations  and  sup- 
plemented with  blunders,  but  which  from  the  platform  of 
modern  culture  should  pronounce  impartially  upon  a  pro- 
duction which,  if  for  no  other  reason,  claims  respect  through 
its  age, — a  book  that  would  lead  us  through  the  stupendous 
labyrinths  of  fact,  and  thought,  and  fancy,  of  which  the 
Talmud  consists,  that  would  rejoice  even  in  hieroglyphical 
fairy-lore,  in  abstruse  propositions  and  syllogisms,  that  could 
forgive  wild  outbursts  of  passion,  and  not  judge  harshly  and 
hastily  of  things,  the  real  meaning  of  which  may  have  had 
to  be  hidden  under  the  fool's  cap  and  bells. 

We  have  not  found  such  a  book,  nor  anything  approaching 
to  it.  But  closely  connected  with  that  circumstance  is  this 
other,  that  we  were  fain  to  quote  the  first  editions  of  this 
Talmud,  though  scores  have  been  printed  since,  and  about  a 
dozen  are  in  the  press  at  this  very  moment.  Even  this  first 
edition  was  printed  in  hot  haste,  and  without  due  care  ;  and 
every  succeeding  one,  with  one  or  two  insignificant  excep- 
tions, presents  a  sadder  spectacle.  In  the  Basle  edition 
of  1578 — the  third  in  point  of  time,  which  has  remained  the 
standard  edition  almost  ever  since — that  amazing  creature, 
the  Censor,  stepped  in.  In  his  anxiety  to  protect  the 
'•'  Faith "  from  all  and  every  danger — for  the  Talmud 
was  supposed  to  hide  bitter  things  against  Christianity  under 
the  most  innocent-looking  words  and  phrases — this  official 
did  very  wonderful  things.  When  he,  for  example,  found 
some  ancient  Eoman  in  the  book  swearing  by  the  Capitol  or 
by  Jupiter  "of  Home,"  his  mind  instantly  misgave  him. 
Surely  this  Roman  must  be  a  Christian,  the  Capitol  the 
Vatican,  Jupiter  the  Pope.  And  forthwith  he  struck  out 
Eome  and  substituted  any  other  place  he  could  think  of.  A. 


THE  TALMUD. 

favourite  spot  seems  to  have  been  Persia,  sometimes  it  was 
Aram  or  Babel.  So  that  this  worthy  Koman  may  be  found 
unto  this  day  swearing  by  the  Capitol  of  Persia  or  by  the 
Jupiter  of  Aram  and  Babel.  But  whenever  the  word 
"  Gentile "  occurred,  the  Censor  was  seized  with  the  most 
frantic  terrors.  A  "  Gentile  "  could  not  possibly  be  aught  but 
a  Christian ;  whether  he  lived  in  India  or  in  Athens,  in 
Borne  or  in  Canaan ;  whether  he  was  a  good  Gentile — and 
there  are  many  such  in  the  Talmud — or  a  wicked  one. 
Instantly  he  christened  him ;  and  christened  him,  as  fancy 
moved  him,  an  "  Egyptian,"  an  "  Aramaean,"  an  "  Amalekite," 
an  "  Arab,"  a  "  Negro ;"  sometimes  a  whole  "  people."  We 
are  speaking  strictly  to  the  letter.  All  this  is  extant  in  our 
very  last  editions. 

Once  or  twice  attempts  were  made  to  clear  the  text  from 
its  foulest  blemishes.  There  was  even,  about  two  years  ago, 
a  beginning  made  of  a  "  critical  "  edition,  such  as  not  merely 
Greek  and  Koman,  Sanscrit  and  Persian  classics,  but  the 
veriest  trash  written  in  those  languages  would  have  had  ever 
so  long  ago.  And  there  is — M.  Kenan's  unfortunate  remark 
to  the  contrary  notwithstanding1 — no  lack  of  Talmudical 
MSS.,  however  fragmentary  they  be  for  the  most  part. 
There  are  innumerable  variations,  additions,  and  corrections 
to  be  gleaned  from  the  Codices  at  the  Bodleian  and  the 
Vatican,  in  the  Libraries  of  Odessa,  Munich,  and  Florence, 
Hamburg  and  Heidelberg,  Paris  and  Parma.  But  an  evil 
eye  seems  to  be  upon  this  book.  This  corrected  edition 
remains  a  torso,  like  the  two  first  volumes  of  translations  of 
the  Talmud,  commenced  at  different  periods,  the  second 
volumes  of  which  never  saw  the  light.  It  therefore  seemed 
advisable  to  refer  to  the  Editio  Princeps,  as  the  one  that 
is  at  least  free  from  the  blemishes,  censorial  or  typographical, 
of  later  ages. 

Well  does  the  Talmud  supplement  the  Horatian  "  Habent 
sua  fata  libelli,"  by  the  words  "  even  the  sacred  scrolls  in  the 


1  "  On   salt  qu'il   ne   reste    aucun  manuscrit    du  Talmud  pour  contrul< 
loa  editions  imprimees." — Les  Apotres,  p.  262. 


THE  TALMUD.  7 

Tabernacle."     We  really   do  not    wonder  that    the   good 

Capucin  of  whom  we  spoke  mistook  it  for  a  man.     Ever 

since   it   existed  —  almost   before  it  existed   in   a  palpable 

shape  —  it  has  been  treated  much  like  a  human  being.     It 

has  been  proscribed,  and  imprisoned,  and  burnt,  a  hundred 

times  over.     From  Justinian,  who,  as   early  as   553   A.D., 

honoured    it  by  a  special  interdictory  Novella,1   down  to 

Clement  VIII.  and  later  —  a  space  of  over  a  thousand  years  — 

both  the  secular  and  the  spiritual  powers,  kings  and  emperors, 

popes   and   anti-popes,  vied   with  each    other    in    hurling 

anathemas  and  bulls  and  edicts  of  wholesale  confiscation  and 

conflagration   against   this   luckless   book.     Thus,  within  a 

period  of  less  than  fifty  years  —  and  these  forming  the  latter 

half  of  the  sixteenth  century  —  it  was  publicly  burnt  no  less 

than  six  different  times,  and  that  not  in  single  copies,  but 

wholesale,  by  the    waggon-load.      Julius    III.    issued    his 

proclamation  against  what  he  grotesquely  calls  the  "  Gema- 

roth  Thalmud,"  in  1553  and  1555,  Paul  IV.  in  1559,  Pius  Y. 

in   1566,    Clement   VIII.  in  1592  and  1599.     The  fear  of 

it  was  great  indeed.     Even  Pius  IV.,  in  giving  permission 

for  a  new  edition,  stipulated  expressly  that  it  should  appear 

without  the  name  Talmud.    "  Si  tanien  prodierit  sine  nomine 

Thalmud  tolerari  deberet."     It  almost  seems  to  have  been  a 

kind  of  Shibboleth,  by  which  every  new  potentate  had  to 

prove  the  rigour  of  his  faith.     And  very  rigorous  it  must 

have  been,  to  judge  by  the  language  which  even  the  highest 

dignitaries  of  the  Church  did  not  disdain  to  use  at  times. 

Thus  Honorius  IV.  writes  to  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury 

in    1286   anent   that  "  damnable  book  "  (liber  damnabiUs), 

admonishing  him  gravely  and  desiring  him  "vehemently" 

to  see  that  it  be  not  read  by  anybody,  since  "  all  other  evils 

flow  out  of  it."  —  Verily  these  documents  are  sad   reading, 

only  relieved  occasionally  by  some  wild  blunder  that  lights 

up  as  with  one  flash  the  abyss  of  ignorance  regarding  this 

object  of  wrath. 

We  remember  but  one  sensible  exception  in  this  Babel  of 


1  Novella    146,    riepl    'EfyaiW    (addressed    to    the    Praefectus    Pnetorio 
Areobiiidus). 


8  THE  TALMUD. 

manifestoes.  Clement  V.,  in  1307,  before  condemning  the 
book,  wished  to  know  something  of  it,  and  there  was  no  one 
to  tell  him.  Whereupon  he  proposed — but  in  language  so 
obscure  that  it  left  the  door  open  for  many  interpretations — 
that  three  chairs  be  founded,  for  Hebrew,  Chaldee,  and 
Arabic,  as  the  three  tongues  nearest  to  the  idiom,  of  the 
Talmud.  The  spots  chosen  by  him  were  the  Universities  of 
Paris,  Salamanca,  Bologna,  and  Oxford.  In  time,  he  hoped, 
one  of  these  Universities  might  be  able  to  produce  a  transla- 
tion of  this  mysterious  book.  Need  we  say  that  this  con- 
summation never  came  to  pass  ?  The  more  expeditious 
process  of  destruction  was  resorted  to  again  and  again  and 
again,  not  merely  in  the  single  cities  of  Italy  and  France, 
but  throughout  the  entire  Holy  Roman  Empire. 

At  length  a  change  took  place  in  Germany.  One  Pfeffer- 
korn,  a  miserable  creature  enough,  began,  in  the  time  of  the 
Emperor  Maximilian,  to  agitate  for  a  new  decree  for  the 
extermination  of  the  Talmud.  The  Emperor  lay  with  his 
hosts  before  Pavia,  when  the  evil-tongued  messenger  arrived 
in  the  camp,  furnished  with  goodly  letters  by  Kunigunde, 
the  Emperor's  beautiful  sister.  Maximilian,  wearied  and 
unsuspecting,  renewed  that  time-honoured  decree  for  a 
confiscation,  to  be  duly  followed  by  a  conflagration,  readily 
enough.  The  confiscation  was  conscientiously  carried  out, 
for  Pfefferkorn  knew  well  enough  where  his  former  co- 
religionists kept  their  books.  But  a  conflagration  of  a  very 
different  kind  ensued.  Step  by  step,  hour  by  hour,  the 
German  Reformation  was  drawing  nearer.  Reuclilin,  the 
most  eminent  Hellenist  and  Hebraist  of  his  time,  had  been 
nominated  to  sit  on  the  Committee  which  was  to  lend  its 
learned  authority  to  the  Emperor's  decree.  But  he  did  not 
relish  this  task.  "Re  did  not  like  the  look  of  Pfefferkoru," 
lie  says.  Besides  which,  he  was  a  learned  and  an  honest 
man,  and,  having  been  the  restorer  of  classical  Greek  in 
Germany,  he  did  not  care  to  participate  in  the  wholesale 
murder  of  a  book  "written  by  Christ's  nearest  relations.'5 
Perhaps  he  saw  the  cunningly-laid  trap.  He  had  long  been 
a  thorn  in  the  flesh  of  many  of  his  contemporaries.  His 


THE  TALMUD. 

Hebrew  labours  had  been  looked  upon  with  bitter  jealousy, 
if  not  fear.  Nothing  less  was  contemplated  in  those  days — 
the  theological  Faculty  of  Mayence  demanded  it  openly — 
than  a  total  "Revision  and  Correction"  of  the  Hebrew 
Bible,  "  inasmuch  as  it  differed  from  the  Vulgate."  Reuch- 
lin,  on  his  part,  never  lost  an  opportunity  of  proclaiming  the 
high  importance  of  the  *•'  Hebrew  Truth,"  as  he  emphatically 
called  it.  His  enemies  thought  that  one  of  two  things  would 
follow.  By  officially  pronouncing  upon  the  Talmud,  he  was 
sure  either  to  commit  himself  dangerously — and  then  a 
speedy  end  would  be  made  of  him — or  to  set  at  naught,  to  a 
certain  extent,  his  own  previous  judgments  in  favour  of  these 
studies.  He  declined  the  proposal,  saying,  honestly  enough, 
that  he  knew  nothing  of  the  book,  and  that  he  was  not  aware 
of  the  existence  of  many  who  knew  anything  of  it.  Least  of 
all  did  its  detractors  know  it.  But,  he  continued,  even  if  it 
should  contain  attacks  on  Christianity,  would  it  not  be 
preferable  to  reply  to  them  ?  "  Burning  is  but  a  ruffianly 
argument  (Bacchanten- Argument)"  Whereupon  a  wild  out- 
cry was  raised  against  him  as  a  Jew,  a  Judaizer,  a  bribed 
renegade,  and  so  on.  Reuchlin,  nothing  daunted,  set  to 
work  upon  the  book  in  his  patient  hard-working  manner. 
Next  he  wrote  a  brilliant  defence  of  it.  When  the  Emperor 
asked  his  opinion,  he  repeated  Clement's  proposal  to  found 
Talmudical  chairs.  At  each  German  university  there  should 
be  two  professors,  specially  appointed  for  the  sole  purpose  of 
enabling  students  to  become  acquainted  with  this  book. 
"  As  to  burning  it,"  he  continues,  in  the  famous  Memorial 
addressed  to  the  Emperor,  "if  some  fool  came  and  said,  Most 
mighty  Emperor !  your  Majesty  should  really  suppress  and 
burn  the  books  of  alchymy  [a  fine  argumentum  ad  lwminem\ 
because  they  contain  blasphemous,  wicked,  and  absurd  things 
against  our  faith,  what  should  his  Imperial  Majesty  reply  to 
such  a  buffalo  or  ass  but  this :  Thou  art  a  ninny,  rather  to  bo 
laughed  at  than  followed?  Now  because  his  feeble  head 
cannot  enter  into  the  depths  of  a  science,  and  cannot 
conceive  it,  and  does  understand  things  otherwise  than  they 
really  are,  would  you  deem  it  fit  to  burn  such  books  ?" 


10  THE  TALMUD. 

Fiercer  and  fiercer  waxed  the  howl,  and  Keuchlin,  the 
peaceful  student,  from  a  witness  became  a  delinquent. 
What  he  suffered  for  and  through  the  Talmud  cannot  be 
told  here.  Far  and  wide,  all  over  Europe,  the  contest  raged. 
A  whole  literature  of  pamphlets,  flying  sheets,  caricatures, 
sprang  up.  University  after  university  was  appealed  to 
against  him.  No  less  than  forty-seven  sittings  were  held 
by  the  theological  Faculty  of  Paris,  which  ended  by  their 
formal  condemnation  of  Keuchlin.  But  he  was  not  left 
to  fight  alone.  Around  him  rallied,  one  by  one,  Duke 
Ulrich  of  Wurtemberg,  the  Elector  Frederick  of  Saxony, 
Ulrich  von  Hutten,  Franz  von  Sickingen — he  who  finally 
made  the  Colognians  pay  their  costs  in  the  Keuchlin  trial — 
Erasmus  of  Rotterdam,  and  that  whole  brilliant  phalanx  of 
the  "Knights  of  the  Holy  Ghost,"  the  '-'Hosts  of  Pallas 
Athene,"  the  "  Talmutphili"  as  the  documents  of  the  period 
variously  style  them  :  they  whom  we  call  the  Humanists. 

And  their  palladium  and  their  war-cry  was — oh  !  won- 
drous ways  of  History — the  Talmud !  To  stand  up  for 
Keuchlin  meant,  to  them,  to  stand  up  for  "the  Law;"  to 
fight  for  the  Talmud  was  to  fight  for  the  Church  !  "  Non  te," 
writes  Egidio  de  Viterbo  to  Keuchlin,  '•  sed  Legem:  non 
Thalmud,  sed  Eedesiam  /" 

The  rest  of  the  story  is  written  in  the  "  EpistolaB  Obscuro- 
rum  Virorum,"  and  in  the  early  pages  of  the  German 
Keformation.  The  Talmud  was  not  burnt  this  time.  On 
the  contrary,  its  first  complete  edition  was  printed.  And  in 
that  same  year  of  Grace  1520  A.D.,  when  this  first  edition 
went  through  the  press  at  Venice,  Martin  Luther  burnt  the 
Pope's  bull  at  Wittenberg. 

What  is  the  Talmud  ? 

Again  the  question  rises  before  us  in  its  whole  formidable 
shape:  a  question  which  no  one  has  yet  answered  satis- 
factorily. And  we  labour  in  this  place  under  more  than 
one  disadvantage.  For,  quite  apart  from  the  difficulties 
of  explaining  a  work  so  utterly  Eastern,  antique,  and 
thoroughly  sui  generis,  to  our  modern  Western  readers,  in 


THE  TALMUD.  11 

the  space  of  a  few  pages,  we  labour  under  the  further 
disability  of  not  being  able  to  refer  to  the  work  itself. 
Would  it  not  indeed  be  mere  affectation  to  presuppose  more 
than  the  vaguest  acquaintance  with  its  language  or  even  its 
name  in  many  of  our  readers  ?  And  while  we  would  fain 
enlarge  upon  such  points  as  a  comparison  between  the 
law  laid  down  in  it  with  ours,  or  with  the  contemporary 
Greek,  Koman,  and  Persian  laws,  or  those  of  Islam,  or  even 
with  its  own  fundamental  Code,  the  Mosaic :  while  we  would 
trace  a  number  of  its  ethical,  ceremonial,  and  doctrinal 
points  in  Zoroastrianism,  in  Christianity,  in  Mohammedan- 
ism ;  a  vast  deal  of  its  metaphysics  and  philosophy  in  Plato, 
Aristotle,  the  Pythagoreans,  the  Neoplatonists,  and  the 
Gnostics — not  to  mention  Spinoza  and  the  Schellings  of  our 
own  day ;  much  of  its  medicine  in  Hippocrates  and  Galen, 
and  the  Paracelsuses  of  but  a  few  centuries  ago — we  shall 
scarcely  be  able  to  do  more  than  to  lay  a  few  disjecta 
membra  of  these  things  before  our  readers.  We  cannot  even 
sketch,  in  all  its  bearings,  that  singular  mental  movement 
which  caused  the  best  spirits  of  an  entire  nation  to  con- 
centrate, in  spite  of  opposition,  all  their  energies  for  a 
thousand  years  upon  the  writing,  and  for  another  thousand 
years  upon  the  commenting,  of  this  one  book.  Omitting 
all  detail,  which  it  has  cost  much  to  gather,  and  more  to 
suppress,  we  shall  merely  tell  of  its  development,  of  the 
schools  in  which  it  grew,  of  the  tribunals  which  judged  by  it, 
of  some  of  the  men  that  set  their  seal  on  it.  We  shall  also 
introduce  a  summary  of  its  law,  speak  of  its  metaphysics, 
of  its  moral  philosophy,  and  quote  many  of  its  proverbs  and 
saws — the  truest  of  all  gauges  of  a  time. 

We  shall,  perhaps,  be  obliged  occasionally  to  appeal  to 
some  of  the  extraneous  topics  just  mentioned.  The  Talmud, 
like  every  other  phenomenon,  in  order  to  become  compre- 
hensible, should  be  considered  only  in  connection  with  things 
of  a  similar  kind :  a  fact  almost  entirely  overlooked  to  this 
day.  Being  emphatically  a  Corpus  Juris,  an  encyclopaedia  of 
law,  civil  and  penal,  ecclesiastical  and  international,  human 
and  divine,  it  may  best  be  judged  by  analogy  and  com- 


12  THE  TALMUD. 

parison  with  other  legal  codes,  more  especially  with  the 
Justinian  Code  and  its  Commentaries.  What  the  uninitiated 
have  taken  for  exceptional  "  Rabbinical "  subtleties,  or,  in 
matters  relating  to  the  sexes,  for  gross  offences  against 
modern  taste,  will  then  cause  the  Talmud  to  stand  rather 
favourably  than  otherwise.  The  Pandects  and  the  Institutes, 
the  Novelise  and  the  Kesponsa  Prudentiurn  should  thus  be 
constantly  consulted  and  compared.  No  less  should  our 
English  law,  as  laid  down  in  Blackstone,  wherein  we  may  see 
how  the  most  varied  views  of  right  and  wrong  have  been 
finally  blended  and  harmonised  with  the  spirit  of  our  times. 
But  the  Talmud  is  more  than  a  book  of  laws.  It  is  a  micro- 
cosm, embracing,  even  as  does  the  Bible,  heaven  and  earth. 
It  is  as  if  all  the  prose  and  the  poetry,  the  science,  the  faith 
and  speculation  of  the  Old  World  were,  though  only  in  faint 
reflections,  bound  up  in  it  in  nuce.  Comprising  the  time 
from  the  rise  to  the  fall  of  antiquity,  and  a  good  deal  of  its 
after-glow,  the  history  and  culture  of  antiquity  have  to  be 
considered  in  their  various  stages.  But,  above  all,  it  is  neces- 
sary to  transport  ourselves,  following  Goethe's  advice,  to  its 
birthplace — Palestine  and  Babylon — the  gorgeous  East  itself, 
where  all  things  glow  in  brighter  colours,  and  grow  into 
more  fantastic  shapes : — 

"  Willst  den  Dichter  du  verstelien, 
Musst  in  Dichter's  Lande  gehen." 

The  origin  of  the  Talmud  is  coeval  with  the  return  from 
the  Babylonish  captivity.  One  of  the  most  mysterious  and 
momentous  periods  in  the  history  of  humanity  is  that  brief 
space  of  the  Exile.  What  were  the  influences  brought  to 
bear  upon  the  captives  during  that  time,  we  know  not.  But 
this  we  know,  that  from  a  reckless,  lawless,  godless  populace, 
they  returned  transformed  into  a  band  of  Puritans.  The 
religion  of  Zerdusht,  though  it  has  left  its  traces  in  Judaism, 
fails  to  account  for  that  change.  Nor  does  the  Exile  itself 
account  for  it.  Many  and  intense  as  are  the  reminiscences 
of  its  bitterness,  and  of  yearning  for  home,  that  have  survived 
in  prayer  and  in  song,  yet  we  know  that  when  the  hour  of 


THE  TALMUD.  13 

liberty  struck,  the  forced  colonists  were  loth,  to  return  to  the 
land  of  their  fathers.  Yet  the  change  is  there,  palpable, 
unmistakeable — a  change  which  we  may  regard  as  almost 
miraculous.  Scarcely  aware  before  of  the  existence  of  their 
glorious  national  literature,  the  people  now  began  to  press 
round  these  brands  plucked  from  the  fire — the  scanty  records 
of  their  faith  and  history — with  a  fierce  and  passionate  love, 
a  love  stronger  even  than  that  of  wife  and  child.  These 
same  documents,  as  they  were  gradually  formed  into  a  canoo, 
became  the  immutable  centre  of  their  lives,  their  actions, 
their  thoughts,  their  very  dreams.  From  that  time  forth, 
with  scarcely  any  intermission,  the  keenest  as  well  as  the 
most  poetical  minds  of  the  nation  remained  fixed  upon  them. 
"  Turn  it  and  turn  it  again,"  says  the  Talmud,  with  regard 
to  the  Bible,  "  for  everything  is  in  it."  "  Search  the  Scrip- 
tures," is  the  distinct  utterance  of  the  New  Testament. 

The  natural  consequence  ensued.  Gradually,  imperceptibly 
almost,  from  a  mere  expounding  and  investigation  for  pur- 
poses of  edification  or  instruction  on  some  special  point,  this 
activity  begot  a  science,  a  science  that  assumed  the  very 
widest  dimensions.  Its  technical  name  is  already  contained 
in  the  Book  of  Chronicles.  It  is  "  Midrash  "  (from  darash, 
to  study,  expound) — a  term  which  the  Authorised  Version 
renders  by  "  Story." x 

There  is  scarcely  a  more  fruitful  source  of  misconceptions 
upon  this  subject  than  the  liquid  nature,  so  to  speak,  of  its 
technical  terms.  They  mean  anything  and  everything,  at 
once  most  general  and  most  special.  Nearly  all  of  them 
signify  in  the  first  instance  simply  "  study."  Next  they  are 
used  for  some  one  very  special  branch  of  this  study.  Then 
they  indicate,  at  times  a  peculiar  method,  at  others  the 
works  which  have  grown  out  of  these  either  general  or  special 
mental  labours.  Thus  Midrash,  from  the  abstract  "  expound- 
ing," came  to  be  applied,  first  to  the  "  exposition  "  itself — even 
as  our  terms  "  work,  investigation,  enquiry,"  imply  both  pro- 
cess and  product ;  and  finally,  as  a  special  branch  of  exposition 


1  See  2  Ckron.  xiii.  22,  xxiv.  27. 


14  THE  TALMUD. 

— the  legendary — was  more  popular  than  the  rest,  to  this  one 
branch  only  and  to  the  books  that  chiefly  represented  it. 

For  there  had  sprung  up  almost  innumerable  modes  of 
"  searching  the  Scriptures."  In  the  quaintly  ingenious  manner 
of  the  times,  four  of  the  chief  methods  were  found  in  the 
Persian  word  Paradise,  spelt  in  vowelless  Semitic  fashion, 
PRDS.  Each  one  of  these  mysterious  letters  was  taken, 
mnemonically,  as  the  initial  of  some  technical  word  that 
indicated  one  of  these  four  methods.  The  one  called  P 
[peshaf]  aimed  at  the  simple  understanding  of  words  and 
things,  in  accordance  with  the  primary  exegetical  law  of  the 
Talmud,  "that  no  verse  of  the  scripture  ever  practically 
travelled  beyond  its  literal  meaning  " — though  it  might  be 
explained,  homiletically  and  otherwise,  in  innumerable  new 
ways.  The  second, R  \reines],  means  Hint,  i.e.  the  discovery 
of  the  indications  contained  in  certain  seemingly  superfluous 
letters  and  signs  in  Scripture.  These  were  taken  to  refer  to 
laws  not  distinctly  mentioned,  but  either  existing  traditionally 
or  newly  promulgated.  This  method,  when  more  generally 
applied,  begot  a  kind  of  memoria  technica,  a  stenography 
akin  to  the  "  Notarikon  "  of  the  Komans.  Points  and  notes 
were  added  to  the  margins  of  scriptural  MSS.,  and  the 
foundation  of  the  Massorah,  or  diplomatic  preservation  of  the 
text,  was  thus  laid.  The  third,  D  [derush],  was  homiletic 
application  of  that  which  had  been  to  that  which  was  and 
would  be  of  prophetical  and  historical  dicta  to  the  actual 
condition  of  things.  It  was  a  peculiar  kind  of  sermon,  with 
all  the  aids  of  dialectics  and  poetry,  of  parable,  gnome, 
proverb,  legend,  and  the  rest,  exactly  as  we  find  it  in  the 
New  Testament.  The  fourth,  S,  stood  for  sod,  secret,  mystery. 
This  was  the  Secret  Science,  into  which  but  few  were  in- 
itiated. It  was  theosophy,  metaphysics,  angelology,  a  host 
of  wild  and  glowing  visions  of  things  beyond  earth.  Faint 
echoes  of  this  science  survive  in  Neoplatonism,  in  Gnosticism, 
in  the  Kabbalah,  in  "  Hermes  Trismegistus."  But  few  were 
initiated  into  these  things  of  "The  Creation"  and  of  "The 
Chariot,"  as  it  was  also  called,  in  allusion  to  Ezekiel's 
vision.  Yet  here  again  the  power  of  the  vague  and  myste- 


THE  TALMUD.  15 

rious  was  so  strong,  that  the  word  Paradise  gradually 
indicated  this  last  branch,  the  secret  science  only.  Later,  in 
Gnosticism,  it  came  to  mean  the  "  Spiritual  Christ." 

There  is  a  weird  story  in  the  Talmud,  which  has  given  rise 
to  the  wildest  explanations,  but  which  will  become  intel- 
ligible by  the  foregoing  lines.  "  Four  men,"  it  says,  "  entered 
Paradise.  One  beheld  and  died.  One  beheld  and  lost  his 
senses.  One  destroyed  the  young  plants.  One  only  entered 
in  peace  and  came  out  in  peace." — The  names  of  all  four  are 
given.  They  are  all  exalted  masters  of  the  law.  The  last 
but  one,  he  who  destroyed  the  young  plants,  is  Elisha  ben 
Abuyah,  the  Faust  of  the  Talmud,  who,  while  sitting  in  the 
academy,  at  the  feet  of  his  teachers,  to  study  the  law,  kept 
the  "  profane  books  " — of  "  Homeros,"  to  wit,  hidden  in  his 
garment,  and  from  whose  mouth  "  Greek  song  "  never  ceased 
to  flow.  How  he,  notwithstanding  his  early  scepticism, 
rapidly  rises  to  eminence  in  that  same  law,"  finally  falls  away 
and  becomes  a  traitor  and  an  outcast,  and  his  very  name  a 
thing  of  unutterable  horror — how,  one  day  (it  was  the  great 
day  of  atonement)  he  passes  the  ruins  of  the  temple,  and 
hears  a  voice  within  "murmuring  like  a  dove" — "all  men 
shall  be  forgiven  this  day  save  Elisha  ben  Abuyah,  who,  know- 
ing me,  has  betrayed  me  " — how,  after  his  death  the  flames 
will  not  cease  to  hover  over  his  grave,  until  his  one  faithful 
disciple,  the  "  Light  of  the  Law,"  Meir,  throws  himself  over 
it,  swearing  a  holy  oath  that  he  will  not  partake  of  the  joys 
of  the  world  to  come  without  his  beloved  master,  and  that  he 
will  not  move  from  that  spot  until  his  master's  soul  shall 
have  found  grace  and  salvation  before  the  Throne  of  Mercy — 
all  this  and  a  number  of  other  incidents  form  one  of  the 
most  stirring  poetical  pictures  of  the  whole  Talmud.  The 
last  of  the  four  is  Akiba,  the  most  exalted,  most  romantic, 
and  most  heroic  character  perhaps  in  that  vast  gallery  of  the 
learned  of  his  time ;  he  who,  in  the  last  revolt  under  Trajan 
and  Hadrian,  expiated  his  patriotic  rashness  at  the  hands  of 
the  Eoman  executioners,  and — the  legend  adds — whose  soul 
fled  just  when,  in  his  last  agony,  his  mouth  cried  out  the  last 


16  THE  TALMUD. 

word  of  the  confession  of  God's  unity: — "Hear,  0  Israel,  the 
Lord  our  God  is  One." 

The  Talmud  is  the  storehouse  of  "  Midrash,"  in  its  widest 
sense,  and  in  all  its  branches.  What  we  said  of  the  fluctua- 
tion of  terms  applies  emphatically  also  to  this  word  Talmud. 
It  means  in  the  first  instance  nothing  but  "  study,"  "  learn- 
ing," from  lamad,  to  learn ;  next  indicating  a  special  method 
of  "  learning  "  or  rather  arguing,  it  finally  became  the  name 
of  the  great  Corpus  Juris  of  Judaism. 

When  we  speak  of  the  Talmud  as  a  legal  code,  we  trust  we 
shall  not  be  understood  too  literally.  It  resembles  about  as 
much  what  we  generally  understand  by  that  name  as  a 
primeval  forest  resembles  a  Dutch  garden. 

Nothing  indeed  can  equal  the  state  of  utter  amazement 
into  which  the  modern  investigator  finds  himself  plunged  at 
the  first  sight  of  these  luxuriant  Talmudical  wildernesses. 
Schooled  in  the  harmonising,  methodising  systems  of  the 
West — systems  that  condense,  and  arrange,  and  classify,  and 
give  everything  its  fitting  place  and  its  fitting  position  in 
that  place — he  feels  almost  stupefied  here.  The  language, 
the  style,  the  method,  the  very  sequence  of  things  (a  sequence 
that  often  appears  as  logical  as  our  dreams),  the  amazingly 
varied  nature  of  these  things — everything  seems  tangled, 
confused,  chaotic.  It  is  only  after  a  time  that  the  student 
learns  to  distinguish  between  two  mighty  currents  in  the 
book — currents  that  at  times  flow  parallel,  at  times  seem  to 
work  upon  each  other,  and  to  impede  each  other's  action : 
the  one  emanating  from  the  brain,  the  other  from  the  heart 
— the  one  prose,  the  other  poetry — the  one  carrying  with  it 
all  those  mental  faculties  that  manifest  themselves  in  arguing, 
investigating,  comparing,  developing,  bringing  a  thousand 
points  to  bear  upon  one  and  one  upon  a  thousand ;  the  other 
springing  from  the  realms  of  fancy,  of  imagination,  feeling, 
humour,  and  above  all  from  that  precious  combination  of 
still,  almost  sad,  pensiveness  with  quick  catholic  sympathies, 
which  in  German  is  called  Gemuth.  These  two  currents  the 
Midrash,  in  its  various  aspects,  had  caused  to  set  in  the 


THE  TALMUD.  17 

direction  of  the  Bible,  and  they  soon  found  in  it  two  vast 
fields  for  the  display  of  all  their  power  and  energy.  The 
logical  faculties  turned  to  the  legal  portions  in  Exodus, 
Leviticus,  Deuteronomy — developing,  seeking,  and  solving  a 
thousand  real  or  apparent  difficulties  and  contradictions  with 
what,  as  tradition,  had  been  living  in  the  hearts  and  mouths 
of  the  people  from  time  immemorial.  The  other — the  imagi- 
native faculties — took  possession  of  the  prophetical,  ethical, 
historical,  and,  quaintly  enough,  sometimes  even  of  the  legal 
portions  of  the  Bible,  and  transformed  the  whole  into  a  vast 
series  of  themes  almost  musical  in  their  wonderful  and 
capricious  variations.  The  first-named  is  called  "  Halachah  " 
(Rule,  Norm),  a  term  applied  both  to  the  process  of  evolving 
legal  enactments  and  the  enactments  themselves.  The  other, 
"Haggadah"  (Legend,  Saga)  not  so  much  in  our  modern 
sense  of  the  word,  though  a  great  part  of  its  contents  comes 
under  that  head,  but  because  it  was  only  a  "  saying,"  a  thing 
without  authority,  a  play  of  fancy,  an  allegory,  a  parable,  a 
tale,  that  pointed  a  moral  and  illustrated  a  question,  that 
smoothed  the  billows  of  fierce  debate,  roused  the  slumbering 
attention,  and  was  generally — to  use  its  own  phrase — a 
"  comfort  and  a  blessing." 

The  Talmud,  which  is  composed  of  these  two  elements, 
the  legal  and  the  legendary,  is  divided  into  MISHNAH  and 
GEMARA  :  two  terms  again  of  uncertain,  shifting  meaning. 
Originally  indicating,  like  the  technical  words  mentioned 
already,  "  study,"  they  both  became  terms  for  special  studies, 
and  indicated  special  works.  The  Mishnah,  from  shanah 
(tana),  to  learn,  to  repeat,  has  been  of  old  translated  Seirre- 
/owcrt?,  second  law.  But  this  derivation,  correct  as  it  seems 
literally,  is  incorrect  in  the  first  instance.  It  simply  means 
"  Learning,"  like  Gemara,  which,  besides,  indicates  "  comple- 
ment "  to  the  Mishnah — itself  a  complement  to  the  Mosaic 
code,  but  ill  such  a  manner  that  in  developing  and  enlarging, 
it  supersedes  it.  The  Mishnah,  on  its  own  part  again,  forms 
a  kind  of  text  to  which  the  Gemara  is  not  so  much  a  scholion 
as  a  critical  expansion.  The  Pentateuch  remains  in  all  cases 
the  background  and  latent  source  of  the  Mishnah.  But  it  is 

c 


18  THE  TALMUD. 

the  business  of  the  Gemara  [to  examine  into  the  legitimacy 
and  correctness  of  this  Mishnic  development  in  single  in- 
stances. The  Pentateuch  remained  under  all  circumstances 
the  immutable,  divinely  given  constitution,  the  written  law : 
in  contradistinction  to  it,  the  Mishnah,  together  with  the 
Gemara,  was  called  the  oral,  or  "  Unwritten  "  law,  not  unlike 
the  unwritten  Greek  T^r/xu,  the  Koinan  "  Lex  Non  Scripta," 
the  Sunnah,  or  our  own  common  law. 

There  are  few  chapters  in  the  whole  History  of  Juris- 
prudence more  obscure  than  the  origin,  development,  and 
completion  of  this  "  Oral  Law."  There  must  have  existed 
from  the  very  beginning  of  the  Mosaic  law  a  number  of 
corollary  laws,  which  explained  in  detail  most  of  the  rules 
broadly  laid  down  in  it.  Apart  from  these,  it  was  but  natural 
that  the  enactments  of  that  primitive  Council  of  the  Desert, 
the  Elders,  and  their  successors  in  each  period,  together  with 
the  verdicts  issued  by  the  later  ''judges  within  the  gates," 
to  whom  the  Pentateuch  distinctly  refers,  should  have  be- 
come precedents,  and  been  handed  down  as  such.  Apocryphal 
writings — notably  the  fourth  book  of  Ezra — not  to  mention 
Philo  and  the  Church  Fathers,  speak  of  fabulous  numbers  of 
books  that  had  been  given  to  Moses  together  with  the  Penta- 
teuch :  thus  indicating  the  common  belief  in  the  divine 
origin  of  the  supplementary  laws  that  had  existed  among  the 
people  from  time  immemorial.  Jewish  tradition  traces  the 
bulk  of  the  oral  injunctions,  through  a  chain  of  distinctly- 
named  authorities,  to  "  Sinai  "  itself.  It  mentions  in  detail 
how  Moses  communicated  those  minutiae  of  his  legislation,  in 
which  he  had  been  instructed  during  the  mysterious  forty 
days  and  nights  on  'the  Mount,  to  the  chosen  guides  of  the 
people,  in  such  a  manner  that  they  should  for  ever  remain 
engraven  on  the  tablets  of  their  hearts. 

A  long  space  intervenes  between  the  Mosaic  period  and 
that  of  the  Mishnah.  The  ever  growing  wants  of  the  ever 
disturbed  commonwealth  necessitated  new  laws  and  regula- 
tions at  every  turn.  A  difficulty,  however,  arose,  unknown 
to  other  legislations.  In  despotic  states  a  decree  is  issued, 
promulgating  the  new  law.  In  constitutional  states  a  Bill  is 


THE  TALMUD.  19 

brought  in.  The  supreme  authority,  if  it  finds  it  meet  and 
right  to  make  this  new  law,  makes  it.  The  case  was  different 
in  the  Jewish  commonwealth  of  the  post-exilian  times. 
Among  the  things  that  were  irredeemably  lost  with  the  first 
temple  were  the  "  Urirn  and  Thummim  "  of  the  high-priest 
—the  oracle.  With  Malachi  the  last  prophet  had  died. 
Both  for  the  promulgation  of  a  new  law  and  the  abrogation 
of  an  old  one,  a  higher  sanction  was  requisite  than  a  mere 
majority  of  the  legislative  council.  The  new  act  must  be 
proved,  directly  or  indirectly,  from  the  "  Word  of  God  " — 
proved  to  have  been  promulgated  by  the  Supreme  King — 
hidden  and  bound  up,  as  it  were,  in  its  very  letters  from  the 
beginning.  This  was  not  easy  in  all  cases ;  especially  when 
a  certain  number  of  hermeneutical  rules,  not  unlike  those 
used  in  the  Eoman  schools  (inferences,  conclusions  from  the 
minor  to  the  major  and  vice  versa,  analogies  of  ideas  or 
objects,  general  and  special  statements,  &c.),  had  come  to  be 
laid  down. 

Apart  from  the  new  laws  requisite  at  sudden  emergencies, 
there  were  many  of  those  old  traditional  ones,  for  which  the 
point  dappui  had  to  be  found,  when,  as  established  legal 
matters,  they  came  before  the  critical  eye  of  the  schools. 
And  these  schools  themselves,  in  their  ever  restless  activity, 
evolved  new  laws,  according  to  their  logical  rules,  even  when 
they  were  not  practically  wanted  nor  likely  ever  to  come 
into  practical  use — simply  as  a  matter  of  science.  Hence 
there  is  a  double  action  perceptible  in  this  legal  develop- 
ment. Either  the  scriptural  verse  forms  the  terminus  a  quo, 
or  the  terminus  ad  quern.  It  is  either  the  starting-point  for 
a  discussion  which  ends  in  the  production  of  some  new  enact- 
ment ;  or  some  new  enactment,  or  one  never  before  investi- 
gated, is  traced  back  to  the  divine  source  by  an  outward 
"  hint,"  however  insignificant. 

This  process  of  evolving  new  precepts  from  old  ones  by 
"  signs," — a  word  curiously  enough  used  also  by  Blackstone 
in  his  "development"  of  the  law — may  in  some  instances 
have  been  applied  with  too  much  freedom.  Yet,  while  the 
Talmudical  Code  practically  differs  from  the  Mosaic  as  much 

c  2 


20  THE  TALMUD. 

as  our  Digest  will  some  day  differ  from  the  laws  of  the  time 
of  Canute,  aud  as  the  Justinian  Code  differs  from  the  Twelve 
Tables,  it  cannot  be  denied  that  these  fundamental  laws  have 
in  all  cases  been  consulted,  carefully  and  impartially  as  to 
their  spirit,  their  letter  being  often  but  the  vessel  or  outer 
symbol.  The  often  uncompromising  severity  of  the  Penta- 
teuch, especially  in  the  province  of  the  penal  law,  had 
certainly  become  much  softened  down  under  the  milder 
influences  of  the  culture  of  later  days.  Several  of  its  in- 
junctions, which  had  become  impracticable,  were  circum- 
scribed, or  almost  constitutionally  abrogated,  by  the  intro- 
duction of  exceptional  formalities.  Some  of  its  branches 
also  had  developed  in  a  direction  other  than  what  at  first 
sight  seems  to  have  been  anticipated.  But  the  power  vested 
in  the  "  judge  of  those  days  "  was  in  general  most  sparingly 
and  conscientiously  applied. 

This  whole  process  of  the  development  of  the  "  Law  "  was 
in  the  hands  of  the  "  Scribes,"  who,  according  to  the  New 
Testament,  -"sit  in  the  seat  of  Moses."  We  shall  speak 
presently  of  the  "  Pharisees  "  with  whom  the  word  is  often 
coupled.  Here,  meantime,  we  must  once  more  distinguish 
between  the  different  meanings  of  the  word  "Scribe"  at 
different  periods.  For  there  are  three  stages  in  the  oral 
compilation  of  the  Talrnudical  Code,  each  of  which  is  named 
after  a  special  class  of  doctors. 

The  task  of  the  first  class  of  these  masters — the  "  Scribes  " 
by  way  of  eminence,  whose  time  ranges  from  the  return  from 
Babylon  down  to  the  Greco-Syrian  persecutions  (220  B.C.)  — 
was  above  all  to  preserve  the  sacred  Text,  as  it  had  survived 
after  many  mishaps.  They  "  enumerated "  not  merely  the 
precepts,  but  the  words,  the  letters,  the  signs  of  the  Scripture, 
thereby  guarding  it  from  all  future  interpolations  and  cor- 
ruptions. They  had  further  to  explain  these  precepts,  in 
accordance  with  the  collateral  tradition  of  which  they  were 
the  guardians.  They  had  to  instruct  the  people,  to  preach 
in  the  synagogues,  to  teach  in  the  schools.  They  further,  on 
their  own  authority,  erected  certain  "  Fences,"  *'.  e.  such  new 
injunctions  as  they  deemed  necessary  merely  for  the  better 


THE  TALMUD.  21 

keeping  of  the  old  precepts.  The  whole  work  of  these  men 
("  Men  of  the  Great  Synagogue  ")  is  well  summed  up  in 
their  adage:  "Have  a  care  in  legal  decisions,  send  forth 
many  disciples,  and  make  a  fence  around  the  law."  More 
pregnant  still  is  the  motto  of  their  last  representative — the 
only  one  whose  name,  besides  those  of  Ezra  and  Nehemiah, 
the  supposed  founders  of  this  body,  has  survived — Simon  the 
Just :  "  On  three  things  stands  the  world :  on  law,  on  worship, 
and  on  charity." 

After  the  "  Scribes  " — KCLT  e^o^v — come  the  "  Learners," 
or  "  Repeaters,"  also  called  Banaim,  "  Master-builders  " — from 
220  B.C.  to  220  A.D.  In  this  period  falls  the  Maccabean 
Kevolution,  the  birth  of  Christ,  the  destruction  of  the  temple 
by  Titus,  the  revolt  of  Bar-Cochba  under  Hadrian,  the  final 
destruction  of  Jerusalem,  and  the  total  expatriation  of  the 
Jews.  During  this  time  Palestine  was  ruled  successively  by 
Persians,  Egyptians,  Syrians,  and  Eomans.  But  the  legal 
labours  that  belong  to  this  period  were  never  seriously  inter- 
rupted. However  dread  the  events,  the  schools  continued 
their  studies.  The  masters  were  martyred  time  after  time, 
the  academies  were  razed  to  the  ground,  the  practical  and 
the  theoretical  occupation  with  the  law  was  proscribed  on 
pain  of  death — yet  in  no  instance  is  the  chain  of  the  living 
tradition  broken.  With  their  last  breath  the  dying  masters 
appointed  and  ordained  their  successors ;  for  one  academy 
that  was  reduced  to  a  heap  of  ashes  in  Palestine,  three  sprang 
up  in  Babylonia,  and  the  Law  flowed  on,  and  was  perpetuated 
in  the  face  of  a  thousand  deaths. 

The  chief  bearers  and  representatives  of  these  divine  legal 
studies  were  the  President  (called  Nasi,  Prince),  and  the  Vice- 
President  ( Ab-Beth-Din  =  Father  of  the  House  of  Judgment) 
of  the  highest  legal  assembly,  the  Synedrion,  aramaised  into 
Sanhedrin.  There  were  three  Sanhedrins :  one  "  Great  San- 
hedrin,"  two  "  lesser  "  ones.  Whenever  the  New  Testament 
mentions  the  "  Priests,  the  Elders,  and  the  Scribes  "  together, 
it  means  the  Great  Sanhedrin.  This  constituted  the  highest 
ecclesiastical  and  civil  tribunal.  It  consisted  of  seventy-one 
members,  chosen  from  the  foremost  priests,  the  heads  of 


22  THE  TALMUD. 

tribes  and  families,  and  from  the  "  Learned,"  i.  e.  the  "  Scribes" 
or  Lawyers.  It  was  no  easy  task  to  be  elected  a  member  of 
this  Supreme  Council.  The  candidate  had  to  be  a  superior 
man,  both  mentally  and  bodily.  He  was  not  to  be  either  too 
young  or  too  old.  Above  all,  he  was  to  be  an  adept  both  in 
the  "  Law  "  and  in  Science. 

When  people  read  of  "  law,"  "  masters  "  or  "  doctors  of  the 
law,"  they  do  not,  it  seems  to  us,  always  fully  realise  what 
that  word  "law"  means  in  Old  or  rather  New  Testament 
language.  It  should  be  remembered  that,  as  we  have  already 
indicated,  it  stands  for  all  and  every  knowledge,  since  all  and 
every  knowledge  was  requisite  for  the  understanding  of  it- 
The  Mosaic  code  has  injunctions  about  the  sabbatical  journey ; 
the  distance  had  to  be  measured  and  calculated,  and  mathe- 
matics were  called  into  play.  Seeds,  plants,  and  animals  had 
to  be  studied  in  connection  with  the  many  precepts  regarding 
them,  and  natural  history  had  to  be  appealed  to.  Then 
there  were  the  purely  hygienic  paragraphs,  which  necessitated 
for  their  precision  a  knowledge  of  all  the  medical  science  of 
the  time.  The  "seasons"  and  the  feast-days  were  regulated 
by  the  phases  of  the  moon ;  and  astronomy — if  only  in  its 
elements — had  to  be  studied.  And — as  the  commonwealth 
successively  came  in  contact,  however  much  against  its  will 
at  first,  with  Greece  and  Eome, — their  history,  geography, 
and  language  came  to  be  added  as  a  matter  of  instruction  to 
those  of  Persia  and  Babylon.  It  was  only  a  handful  of  well- 
meaning  but  narrow-minded  men,  like  the  Essenes,  who 
would  not,  for  their  own  part,  listen  to  the  repeal  of  certain 
temporary  "  Decrees  of  Danger."  When  Hellenic  scepticism 
in  its  most  seductive  form  had,  during  the  Syrian  troubles, 
begun  to  seek  its  victims  even  in  the  midst  of  the  "  Sacred 
Vineyard,"  and  threatened  to  undermine  all  patriotism  and 
all  independence,  a  curse  was  pronounced  upon  Hellenism : 
much  as  German  patriots,  at  the  beginning  of  this  century, 
loathed  the  very  sound  of  the  French  language ;  or  as,  not  so 
very  long  ago,  all  things  "foreign"  were  regarded  with  a 
certain  suspicion  in  England.  But,  the  danger  over,  the 
Greek  language  and  culture  were  restored  to  their  previous 


THE  TALMUD.  23 

high  position  in  both  the  school  and  the  house,  as  indeed  the 
union  of  Hebrew  and  Greek,  "  the  Talith  and  the  Pallium," 
"  Shem  and  Japheth,  who  had  been  blessed  together  by  Noah, 
and  who  would  always  be  blessed  in  union,"  was  strongly 
insisted  upon.  We  shall  return  to  the  polyglott  character  of 
those  days,  the  common  language  of  which  was  an  odd  mix- 
ture of  Greek,  Aramaic,  Latin,  Syriac,  Hebrew ;  but  the 
member  of  the  Sanhedrin  had  to  be  a  good  linguist.  He  was 
not  to  be  dependent  on  the  possibly  tinged  version  of  an 
interpreter.  But  not  only  was  science,  in  its  widest  sense, 
required  in  him,  but  even  an  acquaintance  with  its  fantastic 
shadows,  such  as  astrology,  magic,  and  the  rest,  in  order  that 
he,  as  both  lawgiver  and  judge,  should  be  able  to  enter  also 
into  the  popular  feeling  about  these  wide-spread  "  Arts." 
Proselytes,  eunuchs,  freedinen,  were  rigidly  excluded  from 
the  Assembly.  So  were  those  who  could  not  prove  them- 
selves the  legitimate  offspring  of  priests,  Levites,  or  Israelites. 
And  so,  further,  were  gamblers,  betting-men,  money-lenders, 
and  dealers  in  illegal  produce.  To  the  provision  about  the 
age,  viz.,  that  the  senator  should  be  neither  too  far  advanced 
in  age  "  lest  his  judgment  might  be  enfeebled,"  nor  too  young 
"  lest  it  might  be  immature  and  hasty ;"  and  to  the  proofs 
required  of  his  vast  theoretical  and  practical  knowledge — for 
he  was  only  by  slow  degrees  promoted  from  an  obscure 
judgeship  in  his  native  hamlet  to  the  senatorial  dignity — 
there  came  to  be  added  also  that  wonderfully  fine  rule,  that 
he  must  be  a  married  man  and  have  children  of  his  own. 
Deep  miseries  of  families  would  be  laid  bare  before  him,  and 
he  should  bring  with  him  a  heart  full  of  sympathy. 

Of  the  practical  administration  of  justice  by  the  Sanhedrin 
we  have  yet  to  speak  when  we  come  to  the  Corpus  Juris 
itself.  It  now  behoves  us  to  pause  a  moment  at  those 
'*  schools  and  academies  "  of  which  we  have  repeatedly  made 
mention,  and  of  which  the  Sanhedrin  formed,  as  it  were,  the 
crown  and  the  highest  consummation. 

Eighty  years  before  Christ,  schools  flourished  throughout 
the  length  and  the  breadth  of  the  laud ; — education  had  been 
made  compulsory.  While  there  is  not  a  single  term  for 


24  THE  TALMUD. 

"school"  to  be  found  before  the  Captivity,  there  were  by  that 
time  about  a  dozen  in  common  usage.1  Here  are  a  few  of 
the  innumerable  popular  sayings  of  the  period,  betokening 
the  paramount  importance  which  public  instruction  had 
assumed  in  the  life  of  the  nation :  "  Jerusalem  was  destroyed 
because  the  instruction  of  the  young  was  neglected."  "  The 
world  is  only  saved  by  the  breath  of  the  school-children." 
"  Even  for  the  rebuilding  of  the  Temple  the  schools  must  not 
be  interrupted."  "  Study  is  more  meritorious  than  sacrifice." 
"  A  scholar  is  greater  than  a  prophet."  "  You  should  revere 
the  teacher  even  more  than  your  father.  The  latter  only 
brought  you  into  this  world,  the  former  indicates  the  way 
into  the  next.  But  blessed  is  the  son  who  has  learnt  from 
his  father:  he  shall  revere  him  both  as  his  father  and 
his  master ;  and  blessed  is  the  father  who  has  instructed  his 
son." 

The  "High  Colleges"  or  "Kallahs"2  only  met  during 
some  months  in  the  year.  Three  weeks  before  the  term  the 
Dean  prepared  the  students  for  the  lectures  to  be  delivered 
by  the  Rector,  and  so  arduous  became  the  task,  as  the 
number  of  the  disciples  increased,  that  in  time  no  less  than 
seven  Deans  had  to  be  appointed.  Yet  the  mode  of  teaching 
was  not  that  of  our  modern  universities.  The  professors  did 
not  deliver  lectures,  which  the  disciples,  like  the  Student  in 
"  Faust,"  could  "  comfortably  take  home  in  black  and  white." 
Here  all  was  life,  movement,  debate;  question  was  met  by 
counter-question,  answers  were  given  wrapped  up  in  allegories 
or  parables,  the  inquirer  was  led  to  deduce  the  questionable 


1  Some  of  these  terms  are  Greek,  is  Kallah.  This  may  be  either  the 
like  &\(ros,  i\*6s  :  some,  belonging  to  '  Hebrew  word  for  "  Bride,"  a  well- 
the  pellucid  idiom  of  the  people,  the  known  allegorical  expression  for 
Aramaic,  poetically  indicated  at  times  j  science,  "  assiduously  to  be  courted, 
the  special  arrangement  of  the  small  j  not  lightly  to  be  won,  and  easily 
and  big  scholars,  e.  g.  "Array,"  "  Vine-  ;  estranged  ; "  or  it  may  be  the  slightly 
yard"  ("where  they  sat  in  rows  as  mutilated  Greek  o^oA??,  or  it  may 
stands  the  blooming  vine ")  :  while  i  literally  be  our  own  word  Univ<-i:<Hi/, 
others  are  of  so  uncertain  a  derivation,  :  from  Kol,  all,  universus  :  an  all-cm- 


that  they  may  belong  to  cither  lan- 
guage. The  technical  term  for  the 
highest  school,  for  instance,  has  long 
formed  a  crux  ,for  etymologists.  It 


bracing  institution  of  all  branches  of 
learning. 

2  See  preceding  note. 


THE  TALMUD.  25 

point  for  himself  by  analogy — the  nearest  approach  to  the 
Socratic  method.  The  New  Testament  furnishes  many  spe- 
cimens of  this  contemporary  method  of  instruction. 

The  highest  rank  in  the  estimation  of  the  people  was  not 
reserved  for  the  "  Priests,"  about  whose  real  position  some 
extraordinary  notions  seem  still  afloat — nor  for  the  "  Nobles" 
—but  for  these  Masters  of  the  Law,  the  "  Wise,"  the  "  Dis- 
ciples of  the  Wise."  There  is  something  almost  German  in 
the  profound  reverence  uniformly  shown  to  these  repre- 
sentatives of  science  and  learning,  however  poor  and  insig- 
nificant in  person  and  rank.  Many  of  the  most  eminent 
" Doctors"  were  but  humble  tradesmen.  They  were  tent- 
makers,  sandalmakers,  weavers,  carpenters,  tanners,  bakers, 
cooks.  A  newly-elected  President  was  found  by  his  pre- 
decessor, who  had  been  ignominiously  deposed  for  his  over- 
bearing manner,  all  grimy  in  the  midst  of  his  charcoal 
mounds.  Of  all  things  the  most  hated  were  idleness  and 
asceticism ;  piety  and  learning  themselves  only  received  their 
proper  estimation  when  joined  to  healthy  bodily  work.  "  It 
is  well  to  add  a  trade  to  your  studies  ;  you  will  then  be  free 
from  sin." — "  The  tradesman  at  his  work  need  not  rise  before 
the  greatest  Doctor." — "Greater  is  he  who  derives  his 
livelihood  from  work  than  he  who  fears  God  " — are  some  of 
the  most  common  dicta  of  the  period. 

The  exalted  place  thus  given  to  Work,  as  on  the  one  hand 
it  prevented  an  abject  worship  of  Learning,  so  on  the  other 
it  kept  all  ascetic  eccentricities  from  the  body  of  the  people. 
And  there  was  always  some  danger  of  them  at  hand.  When 
the  Temple  lay  in  ashes,  men  would  no  longer  eat  meat  or 
drink  wine.  A  Sage  remonstrated  with  them,  but  they 
replied,  weeping :  *;  Once  the  flesh  of  sacrifices  was  burnt 
upon  the  Altar  of  God.  The  altar  is  thrown  down.  Once 
libations  of  wine  were  poured  out.  They  are  no  more." 
"But  you  eat  bread;  there  were  bread-offerings."  "You 
are  right,  Master,  we  shall  eat  fruit  only."  "  But  the  first 
fruits  were  offered  up."  "  We  shall  refrain  from  them." 
"  But  you  drink  water,  and  there  were  libations  of  water." 
And  they  knew  not  what  to  reply.  Then  he  comforted  them 


26  THE  TALMUD. 

by  the  assurance  that  He  who  had  destroyed  Jerusalem  had 
promised  to  rebuild  it,  and  that  proper  mourning  was  right 
and  meet,  but  that  it  must  not  be  of  a  nature  to  weaken 
the  body  for  work. 

Another  most  striking  story  is  that  of  the  Sage  who, 
walking  in  a  market-place  crowded  with  people,  suddenly 
encountered  the  prophet  Elijah,  and  asked  him  who,  out  of 
that  vast  multitude,  would  be  saved.  Whereupon  the  Pro- 
phet first  pointed  out  a  weird-looking  creature,  a  turnkey, 
"because  he  was  merciful  to  his  prisoners;"  and  next  two 
common-looking  tradesmen,  who  came  walking  through  the 
crowd,  pleasantly  chatting.  The  Sage  instantly  rushed 
towards  them,  and  asked  them  what  were  their  saving  works. 
But  they,  much  puzzled,  replied :  "  We  are  but  poor  work- 
men who  live  by  our  trade.  All  that  can  be  said  for  us  is 
that  we  are  always  of  good  cheer,  and  are  good-natured. 
WThen  we  meet  anybody  who  seems  sad  we  join  him,  and  we 
talk  to  him,  and  cheer  him,  so  long  that  he  must  forget  his 
grief.  And  if  we  know  of  two  people  who  have  quarrelled, 
we  talk  to  them  and  persuade  them,  until  we  have  made 
them  friends  again.  This  is  our  whole  life."  .... 

Before  leaving  this  period  of  Mishnic  development,  we 
have  yet  to  speak  of  one  or  two  things.  This  period  is  the 
one  in  which  Christianity  arose ;  and  it  may  be  as  well  to 
touch  here  upon  the  relation  between  Christianity  and  the 
Talmud — a  subject  much  discussed  of  late.  Were  not  the 
whole  of  our  general  views  on  the  difference  between  Judaism 
and  Christianity  greatly  confused,  people  would  certainly 
not  be  so  very  much  surprised  at  the  striking  parallels  of 
dogma  and  parable,  of  allegory  and  proverb,  exhibited  by 
the  Gospel  and  the  Talmudical  writings.  The  New  Testament,, 
written,  as  Lightfoot  has  it,  "  among  Jews,  by  Jews,  for  Jews," 
cannot  but  speak  the  language  of  the  time,  both  as  to  form 
and,  broadly  speaking,  as  to  contents.  There  are  many  more 
vital  points  of  contact  between  the  New  Testament  and  the 
Talmud  than  divines  yet  seem  fully  to  realise ;  for  such 
terms  as  " Kedemption,"  "Baptism,"  "Grace,"  "Faith," 
"Salvation,"  " Begeneration,"  "Son  of  Man,"  "Son  of  God," 


THE  TALMUD.  27 

"Kingdom  of  Heaven,"  were  not,  as  we  are  apt  to  think, 
invented  by  Christianity,  but  were  household  words  of  Tal- 
mudical  Judaism.  No  less  loud  and  bitter  in  the  Talmud  are 
the  protests  against  " lip-serving,"  against  "making  the  law 
a  burden  to  the  people,"  against  "  laws  that  hang  on  hairs," 
against  "  Priests  and  Pharisees."  The  fundamental  mysteries 
of  the  new  Faith  are  matters  totally  apart ;  but  the  Ethics 
in  both  are,  in  their  broad  outlines,  identical.  That  grand 
dictum,  "Do  unto  others  as  thou  wouldst  be  done  by," 
against  which  Kant  declared  himself  energetically  from  a 
philosophical  point  of  view,  is  quoted  by  Hillel,  the  President, 
at  whose  death  Jesus  was  ten  years  of  age,  not  as  anything 
new,  but  as  an  old  and  well-known  dictum  "  that  comprised 
the  wiiole  Law."  The  most  monstrous  mistake  has  ever  been 
our  mixing  up,  in  the  first  instance,  single  individuals,  or 
classes,  with  a  whole  people,  and  next  our  confounding  the 
Judaism  of  the  time  of  Christ  with  that  of  the  time  of  the 
Wilderness,  of  the  Judges,  or  even  of  Abraham,  Isaac,  and 
Jacob.  The  Judaism  of  the  time  of  Christ  (to  which  that 
of  our  days,  owing  principally  to  the  Talmud,  stands  very 
near),  and  that  of  the  Pentateuch,  are  as  like  each  other  as 
our  England  is  like  that  of  William  Eui'us,  or  the  Greece  of 
Plato  that  of  the  Argonauts.  It  is  the  glory  of  Christianity 
to  have  carried  those  golden  germs,  hidden  in  the  schools 
and  among  the  "  silent  community  "  of  the  learned,  into  the 
market  of  Humanity.  It  has  communicated  that  "  Kingdom 
of  Heaven,"  of  which  the  Talmud  is  full  from  the  first  page 
to  the  last,  to  the  herd,  even  to  the  lepers.  The  fruits  that 
have  sprung  from  this  through  the  wide  world  we  need  not 
here  consider.  But  the  misconception,  as  if  to  a  God  of 
Vengeance  had  suddenly  succeeded  a  God  of  Love,  cannot  be 
too  often  protested  against.  "  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbour 
as  thyself"  is  a  precept  of  the  Old  Testament,  as  Christ 
himself  taught  his  disciples.  The  "  Law,"  as  we  have  seen 
and  shall  further  see,  was  developed  to  a  marvellously  and 
perhaps  oppressively  minute  pitch;  but  only  as  a  regulator 
of  outward  actions.  The  "faith  of  the  heart" — the  dogma 
prominently  dwelt  upon  by  Paul — was  a  thing  that  stood 


28  THE  TALMUD. 

inucli  higher  with  the  Pharisees  than  this  outward  law.  It 
was  a  thing,  they  said,  not  to  be  commanded  by  any  ordi- 
nance; yet  was  greater  than  all.  "Everything,"  is  one  of 
their  adages,  "is  in  the  hands  of  Heaven,  save  the  fear  of 
Heaven." 

"  Six  hundred  and  thirteen  injunctions,"  says  the  Talmud,  "  was  Moses 
instructed  to  give  to  the  people.  David  reduced  them  all  to  eleven,  in  the 
fifteenth  Psalm  :  Lord,  who  shall  abide  in  Thy  tabernacle,  who  shall  dwell 
on  Thy  holy  hill  ?  He  that  walketh  uprightly,"  &c. 

"  The  Prophet  Isaiah  reduced  them  to  six  (xxxiii.  15) : — He  that 
walketh  righteously,"  &c. 

"  The  Prophet  Micah  reduced  them  to  three  (vi.  8)  :  What  doth  the 
Lord  require  of  thee  but  to  do  justly,  and  to  love  mercy,  and  to  walk 
humbly  with  thy  God  ? 

"  Isaiah  once  more  reduced  them  to  two  (Ivi.  1)  : — Keep  ye  judgment 
and  do  justice. 

"  Amos  (v.  4)  reduced  them  all  to  one  : — Seek  ye  me  and  ye  shall 
live. 

"  But  lest  it  might  be  supposed  from  this  that  God  could  be  found  in 
the  fulfilment  of  his  whole  law  only,  Habakkuk  said  (ii.  4)  : — '  The  just 
shall  live  by  his  Faith.'  " 

Kegarding  these  "  Pharisees  "  or  "  Separatists  "  themselves, 
no  greater  or  more  antiquated  mistake  exists  than  that  of 
their  being  a  mere  "  sect  "  hated  by  Christ  and  the  Apostles. 
They  were  not  a  sect, — any  more  than  Eoman  Catholics 
form  a  "  sect "  in  Kome,  or  Protestants  a  "  sect "  in  England, 
— and  they  were  not  hated  so  indiscriminately  by  Christ  and 
the  Apostles  as  would  at  first  sight  appear  from  some  sweep- 
ing passages  in  the  New  Testament.  For  the  "  Pharisees," 
as  such,  were  at  that  time — Josephus  notwithstanding — 
simply  the  people,  in  contradistinction  to  the  "leaven  of 
Herod."  Those  " upper  classes"  of  free-thinking  Sadducees 
who,  in  opposition  to  the  Pharisees,  insisted  on  the  paramount 
importance  of  sacrifices  and  tithes,  of  which  they  were  the 
receivers,  but  denied  the  Immortality  of  the  Soul,  are  barely 
mentioned  in  the  New  Testament.  The  wholesale  denun- 
ciations of  "  Scribes  and  Pharisees  "  have  been  greatly  mis- 
understood. There  can  be  absolutely  no  question  on  this 
point,  that  there  were  among  the  genuine  Pharisees  the  most 
patriotic,  the  most  noble  minded,  the  most  advanced  leaders 


THE  TALMUD.  29" 

of  the  Party  of  Progress.     The  development  of  the  Law  itself 
was  nothing  in  their  hands  but  a  means  to  keep  the  Spirit  as 
opposed  to  the  Word — the  outward  frame — in  full  life  and 
flame,  and  to  vindicate  for  each  time  its  own  right  to  interpret 
the  temporal  ordinances  according  to  its  own  necessities  and 
requirements.     But  that  there  were  very  many  black  sheep 
in  their  flock — many  who  traded  on  the  high  reputation  of 
the  whole  body — is  matter  of  reiterated  denunciation  in  the 
whole  contemporary  literature.     The  Talmud  inveighs  even, 
more  bitterly  and  caustically  than  the  New  Testament  against 
what  it  calls  the  "  Plague  of  Pharisaism,"  "  the  dyed  ones," 
"  who  do  evil  deeds  like  Zimri,  and  require  a  goodly  reward 
like  Phinehas,"  "  they  who  preach  beautifully,  but  do  not  act 
beautifully."     Parodying  their  exaggerated  logical  arrange- 
ments, their  scrupulous  divisions  and  subdivisions,  the  Talmud 
distinguishes  seven  classes  of  Pharisees,  one  of  whom  only  is 
worthy  of  that  name.     These  are — 1,  those  who  do  the  will 
of  God  from  earthly  motives ;  2,  they  who  make  small  steps, 
or  say,  just  wait  a  while  for  me ;  I  have  just  one  more  good 
work  to  perform ;  3,  they  who  knock  their  heads  against  walls 
in  avoiding  the  sight  of  a  woman ;  4,  saints  in  office ;  5,  they 
who  implore  you  to  mention  some  more  duties  which  they 
might  perform  ;  6,  they  who  are  pious  because  they  fear  God. 
The  real  and  only  Pharisee  is  he  "  who  does  the  will  of  his 
father  which  is  in  Heaven  because  he  loves  Him"     Among 
those   chiefly  "  Pharisaic "  masters   of  the   Mishnic  period, 
whose  names  and  fragments  of  whose  lives  have  come  down 
to  us,  are  some  of  the  most  illustrious  men,  men  at  whose 
feet  the  first  Christians  sat,  whose  sayings — household  words 
in  the   mouths  of  the  people — prove  them   to   have   been 
endowed  with  no  common  wisdom,  piety,  kindness,  and  high 
and  noble  courage:  a  courage  and  a  piety  they  had  often 
enough  occasion  to  seal  with  their  lives. 

From  this  hasty  outline  of  the  mental  atmosphere  of  the 
time  when  the  Mishnah  was  gradually  built  up,  we  now  turn 
to  this  Code  itself.  The  bulk  of  ordinances,  injunctions,  pro- 
hibitions, precepts, — the  old  and  new,  traditional,  derived,  or 
enacted  on  the  spur  of  the  moment, — had,  after  about  eight 


30  THE  TALMUD. 

hundred  years,  risen  to  gigantic  proportions,  proportions  no 
longer  to  be  mastered  in  their  scattered,  and  be  it  remem- 
bered, chiefly  unwritten,  form.  Thrice,  at  different  periods, 
the  work  of  reducing  them  to  system  and  order  was  under- 
taken by  three  eminent  masters ;  the  third  alone  succeeded. 
First  by  Hillel  I.,  under  whose  presidency  Christ  was  born. 
This  Hillel,  also  called  the  second  Ezra,  was  born  in  Babylon. 
Thirst  for  knowledge  drove  him  to  Jerusalem.  He  was  so 
poor,  the  legend  tells  us,  that  once,  when  he  had  not  money 
enough  to  fee  the  porter  of  the  academy,  he  climbed  up  the 
window-sill  one  bitter  winter's  night.  As  he  lay  there  listening, 
the  cold  gradually  made  him  insensible,  and  the  snow 
covered  him  up.  The  darkness  of  the  room  first  called  the 
attention  of  those  inside  to  the  motionless  form  without. 
He  was  restored  to  life.  Be  it  observed,  by  the  way,  that 
this  was  on  a  Sabbath,  as,  according  to  the  Talmud,  danger 
always  supersedes  the  Sabbath.  Even  for  the  sake  of  the 
tiniest  babe  it  must  be  broken  without  the  slightest  hesi- 
tation, "  for  the  babe  will,"  it  is  added,  "  keep  many  a 
Sabbath  yet  for  that  one  that  was  broken  for  it." 

And  here  we  cannot  refrain  from  entering  an  emphatic 
protest  against  the  vulgar  notion  of  the  "  Jewish  Sabbath  " 
being  a  thing  of  grim  austerity.  It  was  precisely  the  con- 
trary, a  "  day  of  joy  and  delight,"  a  "  feast  day,"  honoured 
by  fine  garments,  by  the  best  cheer,  by  wine,  lights,  spice, 
and  other  joys  of  pre-eminently  bodily  import :  and  the 
highest  expression  of  the  feeling  of  self-reliance  and  inde- 
pendence is  contained  in  the  adage,  "  Kather  live  on  your 
Sabbath  as  you  would  on  a  week  day,  than  be  dependent  on 
others."  But  this  only  by  the  way. 

About  30  B.C.  Hillel  became  President.  Of  his  meekness, 
his  piety,  his  benevolence,  the  Talmudical  records  are  full. 
A  few  of  his  sayings  will  characterise  him  better  than  any 
sketch  of  ours  could  do.  "  Be  a  disciple  of  Aaron,  a  friend 
of  peace,  a  promoter  of  peace,  a  friend  of  all  men,  and  draw 
them  near  unto  the  law."  "  Do  not  believe  in  thyself  till 
the  day  of  thy  death."  "  Do  not  judge  thy  neighbour  until 
thou  hast  stood  in  his  place."  "  Whosoever  does  not  increase 


THE  TALMUD.  31 

in  knowledge  decreases."  "  Whosoever  tries  to  make  gain 
by  the  crown  of  learning  perishes."  Immediately  after  the 
lecture  he  used  to  hurry  home.  Once  asked  by  his  disciples 
what  caused  him  to  hasten  away,  he  replied  he  had  to  look 
after  his  guest.  When  they  pressed  him  for  the  name  of 
his  guest,  he  said  that  he  meant  his  soul,  which  was  here 
to-day  and  there  to-morrow.  One  day  a  heathen  went  to 
Shammai,  the  head  of  the  rival  academy,  and  asked  him 
mockingly  to  convert  him  to  the  law  while  he  stood  on  one 
leg.  The  irate  master  turned  him  from  his  door.  He  then 
went  to  Hillel,  who  received  him  kindly  and  gave  him  that 
reply — since  so  widely  propagated — "  Do  not  unto  another 
what  thou  wouldest  not  have  another  do  unto  thee.  This  is 
the  whole  Law,  the  rest  is  mere  commentary."  Very  charac- 
teristic is  also  his  answer  to  one  of  those  "  wits  "  who  used  to 
plague  him  with  their  silly  questions.  "  How  many  laws  are 
there  ?"  he  asked  Hillel.  "  Two,"  Hillel  replied,  "  one  written 
and  one  oral."  Whereupon  the  other,  "  I  believe  in  the  first, 
but  I  do  not  see  why  I  should  believe  in  the  second."  "  Sit 
down,"  Hillel  said.  And  he  wrote  down  the  Hebrew  alphabet. 
•"  What  letter  is  this  ?"  he  then  asked,  pointing  to  the  first. 
«  This  is  an  Aleph."  "  Good,  the  next  ?  "  "  Beth."  "  Good 
again.  But  how  do  you  know  that  this  is  an  Aleph  and 
this  a  Beth  ?  "  «  Thus,"  the  other  replied,  "  we  have  learnt 
from  our  ancestors."  "  Well,"  Hillel  said,  "  as  you  have 
accepted  this  in  good  faith,  accept  also  the  other."  To  his 
mind  the  necessity  of  arranging  and  simplifying  that  mon- 
strous bulk  of  oral  traditions  seems  to  have  presented  itself 
first  with  all  its  force.  There  were  no  less  than  some  six 
hundred  vaguely  floating  sections  of  it  in  existence  by  that 
time.  He  tried  to  reduce  them  to  six.  But  he  died,  and 
the  work  commenced  by  him  was  left  untouched  for  another 
century.  Akiba,  the  poor  shepherd  who  fell  in  love  with 
the  daughter  of  the  richest  and  proudest  man  in  all  Jeru- 
salem, and,  through  his  love,  from  a  clown  became  one  of 
the  most  eminent  doctors  of  his  generation,  nay  "  a  second 
Moses,"  came  next.  But  he  too  was  unsuccessful.  His  legal 
labours  were  cut  short  by  the  Roman  executioner.  Yet  the 


32  THE  TALMUD. 

day  of  his  martyrdom  is  said  to  have  been  the  day  of 
the  birth  of  him  who,  at  last,  did  carry  out  the  work, — 
Jehuda,  the  Saint,  also  called  "  Eabbi  "  by  way  of  eminence. 
About  200  A.D.  the  redaction  of  the  whole  unwritten  law 
into  a  code,  though  still  unwritten,  was  completed  after  the 
immense  efforts,  not  of  one  school,  but  of  all,  not  through 
one,  but  many  methods  of  collection,  comparison,  and  con- 
densation. 

When  the  Code  was  drawn  up,  it  was  already  obsolete 
in  many  of  its  parts.  More  than  a  generation  before  the 
Destruction  of  the  Temple,  Kome  had  taken  the  penal  juris- 
diction from  the  Sanhedrin.  The  innumerable  injunctions 
regarding  the  temple-service,  the  sacrifices,  and  the  rest,  had 
but  an  ideal  value.  The  agrarian  laws  for  the  most  part 
applied  only  to  Palestine,  and  but  an  insignificant  fraction 
of  the  people  had  remained  faithful  to  the  desecrated  land. 
Nevertheless  the  whole  Code  was  eagerly  received  as  their 
text-book  by  the  many  academies  both  in  Palestine  and  in 
Babylonia,  not  merely  as  a  record  of  past  enactments,  but 
as  laws  that  at  some  time  or  other,  with  the  restoration  of 
the  commonwealth,  would  come  into  full  practice  as  of  yore. 

The  Mishnah  is  divided  into  six  sections.  These  are  sub- 
divided again  into  11,  12,  7,  9  (or  10),  11,  and  12  chapters 
respectively,  which  are  further  broken  up  into  524  para- 
graphs. We  shall  briefly  describe  their  contents  : — 

"  Section  I.,  Seeds :  of  Agrarian  Laws,  commencing  with  a  chapter 
on  Prayers.  In  this  section  the  various  tithes  and  donations  due  to  the 
Priests,  the  Levites,  and  the  poor,  from  the  products  of  the  lands,  and 
further  the  Sabbatical  year,  and  the  prohibited  mixtures  in  plants,  animals, 
and  garments,  are  treated  of. 

"  Section  IT.,  Feasts :  of  Sabbaths,  Feast  and  Fast  days,  the  work 
prohibited,  the  ceremonies  ordained,  the  sacrifices  to  be  offered,  on  them. 
Special  chapters  are  devoted  to  the  Feast  of  the  Exodus  from  Egypt,  to  the 
New  Year's  Day,  to  the  Day  of  Atonement  (one  of  the  most  impressive 
portions  of  the  whole  book),  to  the  Feast  of  Tabernacles,  and  to  that  of 
Haman. 

"  Section  III.,  Women :  of  betrothal,  marriage,  divorce,  &c.  :  also  of 
vows. 

"  Section  IV.,  Damages  :  including  a  great  part  of  the  civil  and  criminal 
law.  It  treats  of  the  law  of  trover,  of  buying  and  selling,  and  the  ordinary 


THE  TALMUD.  33 

monetary  transactions.  Further,  of  the  greatest  crime  known  to  the  law, 
viz.,  idolatry.  Next  of  witnesses,  of  oaths,  of  legal  punishments,  and  of 
the  Sanhedrin  itself.  This  section  concludes  with  the  so-called  '  Sentences 
of  the  Fathers/  containing  some  of  the  sublimest  ethical  dicta  known  in 
the  history  of  religious  philosophy. 

"  Section  V.,  Sacred  Things :  of  sacrifices,  the  first-born,  &c. ;  also  of 
the  measurements  of  the  Temple  (Middoth). 

"  Section  VI.,  Purifications :  of  the  various  levitical  and  other  hygienic 
laws,  of  impure  things  and  persons,  their  purification,  &c." 

There  is,  it  cannot  be  denied,  more  symmetry  and  method 
in  the  Mishnah  than  in  the  Pandects  ;  although  we  have  not 
found  that  minute  logical  sequence  in  its  arrangement  which 
Maimonides  and  others  have  discovered.  In  fact,  we  do  not 
believe  that  we  have  it  in  its  original  shape.  But,  as  far  as 
the  single  treatises  are  concerned,  the  Mishnah  is  for  the 
most  part  free  from  the  blemishes  of  the  Koman  Code.  There 
are,  unquestionably,  fewer  contradictory  laws,  fewer  repe- 
titions, fewer  interpolations,  than  in  the  Digests,  which, 
notwithstanding  Tribonian's  efforts,  abound  with  so-called 
"  Geminationes,"  "  Leges  fugitive,"  "  errativse,"  and  so  forth  ; 
arid,  as  regards  a  certain  outspokenness  in  bodily  things,  it 
has  at  last  been  acknowledged  by  all  competent .  authorities 
that  its  language  is  infinitely  purer  than  that,  for  instance, 
of  the  medieval  casuists. 

The  regulations  contained  in  these  six  treatises  are  of 
very  different  kinds.  They  are  apparently  important  and 
unimportant,  intended  to  be  permanent  or  temporary.  They 
are  either  clear  expansions  of  Scriptural  precepts,  or  inde- 
pendent traditions,  linked  to  Scripture  only  hermeneutically. 
They  are  "decisions,"  "fences,"  "injunctions,"  "ordinances," 
or  simply  "Mosaic  Halachah  from  Sinai" — much  as  the 
Koman  laws  consist  of  "  Senatusconsulta,"  "  Plebiscita," 
"  Edicta,"  "  Kesponsa  Prudentium,"  and  the  rest.  Save  in 
points  of  dispute,  the  Mishnah  does  not  say  when  and  how 
a  special  law  was  made.  Only  exceptionally  do  we  read  the 
introductory  formula  "  N.  N.  has  borne  witness,"  "  I  have 
heard  from  N.  N.,"  &c. ;  for  nothing  was  admitted  into  the 
Code  but  that  which  was  well  authenticated  first.  There 
is  no  difference  made  between  great  laws  and  little  laws — 

D 


34  THE  TALMUD. 

between  ancient  and  new  Halachah.  Every  precept  tradi- 
tionally received  or  passed  by  the  majority  becomes,  in  a 
manner,  a  religious,  divinely  sanctioned  one,  although  it  was 
always  open  to  the  subsequent  authorities  to  reconsider  and 
to  abrogate ;  as,  indeed,  one  of  the  chief  reasons  against  the 
writing  down  of  the  Code,  even  after  its  redaction,  was  just 
this,  that  it  should  never  become  fixed  and  immutable.  That 
the  Mishnah  was  appealed  to  for  all  practical  purposes,  in 
preference  to  the  "  Mosaic  "  law,  seems  clear  and  natural. 
Do  we  generally  appeal  in  our  law-courts  to  the  Magna 
Charta  ? 

This  uniform  reverence  for  all  the  manifold  contents  of 
the  Mishnah  is  best  expressed  in  the  redactor's  own  words — 
the  motto  to  the  whole  collection — "  Be  equally  consci- 
entious in  small  as  in  great  precepts,  for  ye  know  not  their 
individual  rewards.  Compute  the  earthly  loss  sustained  by 
the  fulfilment  of  a  law  by  the  heavenly  reward  derived 
through  it;  and  the  gain  derived  from  a  transgression  by 
the  punishment  that  is  to  follow  it.  Also  contemplate  three 
things,  and  ye  shall  not  fall  into  sin :  Know  what  is  above 
ye — an  eye  that  seeth,  an  ear  that  heareth,  and  all  your 
works  are  written  in  a  book." 

The  tone  and  tenor  of  the  Mishnah  is,  except  in  the  one 
special  division  devoted  to  Ethics,  emphatically  practical. 
It  does  not  concern  itself  with  Metaphysics,  but  aims  at 
being  merely  a  civil  code.  Yet  it  never  misses  an  oppor- 
tunity of  inculcating  those  higher  ethical  principles  which 
lie  beyond  the  strict  letter  of  the  law.  It  looks  more  to 
the  "  intention "  in  the  fulfilment  of  a  precept  than  to  the 
fulfilment  itself.  He  who  claims  certain  advantages  by  the 
letter  of  the  law,  though  the  spirit  of  humanity  should  urge 
him  not  to  insist  upon  them,  is  not  "  beloved  by  God  and 
man."  On  the  other  hand,  he  who  makes  good  by  his  own 
free  will  demands  which  the  law  could  not  have  enforced ; 
he,  in  fact,  who  does  not  stop  short  at  the  "  Gate  of  Justice," 
but  proceeds  within  the  "  line  of  mercy,"  in  him  the  "  spirit 
of  the  wise "  has  pleasure.  Certain  duties  bring  fruits  (in- 
terest) in  this  world ;  but  the  real  reward,  the  "  capital,"  is 


THE  TALMUD.  35 

paid  back  in  the  world  to  come  :  such  as  reverence  for  father 
and  mother,  charity,  early  application  to  study,  hospitality, 
doing  the  last  honour  to  the  dead,  promoting  peace  between 
man  and  his  neighbour.  The  Mishnah  knows  nothing  of 
"Hell."  For  all  and  any  transgressions  there  were  only  the 
fixed  legal  punishments,  or  a  mysterious  sudden  "  visitation 
of  God" — the  scriptural  "rooting  out."  Death  atones  for 
all  sins.  .  Minor  transgressions  are  redeemed  by  repentance, 
charity,  sacrifice,  and  the  day  of  atonement.  Sins  committed 
against  man  are  only  forgiven  when  the  injured  man  has 
had  full  amends  made  and  declares  himself  reconciled.  The 
highest  virtue  lies  in  the  study  of  the  law.  It  is  not  only 
the  badge  of  high  culture  (as  was  of  old  the  case  in  England), 
but  there  is  a  special  merit  bound  up  in  it  that  will  assist 
man  both  in  this  and  in  the  world  to  come.  Even  a  bastard 
who  is  learned  in  it  is  more  honoured  than  a  high-priest 
who  is  not. 

To  discuss  these  laws,  their  spirit,  and  their  details,  in 
this  place,  we  cannot  undertake.  But  this  much  we  may 
say,  that  it  has  always  been  the  unanimous  opinion  of  both 
friends  and  foes  that  their  general  character  is  humane  in 
the  extreme  :  in  spite  of  certain  harsh  and  exceptional  laws, 
issued  in  times  of  danger  and  misery,  of  revolution  and 
reaction ;  laws,  moreover,  which  for  the  most  part  never  were 
and  never  could  be  carried  into  practice.  There  is  an  almost 
modern  liberality  of  view  regarding  the  "  fulfilment  of  the 
Law "  itself,  expressed  by  such  frequent  adages  as  "  The 
Scripture  says:  'he  shall  live  by  them' — that  means,  he 
shall  not  die  through  them.  They  shall  not  be  made  pitfalls 
or  burdens  to  him,  that  shall  make  him  hate  life.'  'He 
who  carries  out  these  precepts  to  the  full  is  declared  to  be 
nothing  less  than  a  Saint.'  "  "  The  law  has  been  given  to 
men,  and  not  to  angels." 

Kespecting  the  practical  administration  of  justice,  a  sharp 
distinction  is  drawn  by  the  Mishnah  between  the  civil  and 
criminal  law.  In  both  the  most  careful  investigation  and 
scrutiny  is  required ;  but  while  in  the  former  three  judges 
are  competent,  a  tribunal  of  no 'less  than  twenty-three  is 

D  2 


36  THE  TALMUD. 

required  for  the  latter.  The  first  duty  of  the  civil  judges- 
is  always — however  clear  the  case — to  urge  an  agreement.. 
"  When,"  says  the  Talmud,  "  do  justice  and  goodwill  meet  ? 
When  the  contending  parties  are  made  to  agree  peace- 
ably." There  were  both  special  local  magistrates  and  casual 
"justices  of  peace,"  chosen  ad  hoc  by  the  parties.  Pay- 
ment received  for  a  decision  annuls  the  decision.  Loss  of 
time  only  was  allowed  to  be  made  good  in  case  of  tradesmen- 
judges.  The  plaintiff,  if  proved  to  have  asked  more  than 
his  due,  with  a  view  of  thus  obtaining  his  due  more  readily, 
was  nonsuited.  Three  partners  in  an  action  must  not  divide 
themselves  into  one  plaintiff  and  two  witnesses.  The  Judge 
must  see  that  both  parties  are  pretty  equally  dressed,  i.e. 
not  one  in  fine  garments,  the  others  in  rags ;  and  he  is 
further  particularly  cautioned  not  to  be  biassed  in  favour  of 
the  poor  against  the  rich.  The  Judge  must  not  hear  anything 
of  the  case,  save  in  the  presence  of  both  parties.  Many  and 
striking  are  also  the  admonitions  regarding  the  Judge.  "  He 
who  unjustly  hands  over  one  man's  goods  to  another,  he  shall 
pay  God  for  it  with  his  own  soul."  'c  In  the  hour  when  the 
Judge  sits  in  judgment  over  his  fellow-men,  he  shall  feelr 
as  it  were,  a  sword  pointed  at  his  own  heart."  "  Woe  unto 
the  Judge  who,  convinced  in  his  mind  of  the  unrighteousness 
of  a  cause,  tries  to  throw  the  blame  on  the  witnesses.  From 
him  God  will  ask  an  account."  "  When  the  parties  stand 
before  you,  look  upon  both  as  guilty ;  but  when  they  are 
dismissed,  let  them  both  be  innocent  in  thine  eyes,  for  the 
decree  has  gone  forth." 

It  would  not  be  easy  to  find  a  more  humane,  almost 
refined,  penal  legislation,  from  the  days  of  the  old  world 
to  our  own.  While  in  civil  cases — whenever  larger  tribunals 
(juries)  had  to  be  called  in — a  majority  of  one  is  sufficient 
for  either  acquittal  or  condemnation ;  in  criminal  cases  a 
majority  of  one  acquits,  but  a  majority  of  two  is  requisite 
for  condemnation.  All  men  are  accepted  in  the  former  as 
witnesses — always  except  gamblers  (KvjBeia — dice-players),, 
betting-men  ("pigeon-flyers"),  usurers,  dealers  in  illegal 
(seventh  year's)  produce,  and  slaves,  who  were  disqualified 


THE  TALMUD.  37 

from  "judging  and  bearing  witness" — either  for  the  plaintiff 
-or  the  defendant ;  but  it  is  only  for  the  defence  that  every- 
body, indiscriminately,  is  heard  in  criminal  \cases.  The  , 
cross-examination  of  the  witnesses  was  exceedingly  strict. 
The  formula  (containing  at  once  a  whole  breviary  for  the 
Judge  himself),  with  which  the  witnesses  were  admonished 
in  criminal  cases  was  of  so  awful  and  striking  a  nature,  that 
"  swearing  a  man's  life  away  "  became  an  almost  unheard-of 
occurrence  :— 

"  How  is  one,"  says  the  Mishnah,  "  to  awe  the  witnesses  who  are  called 
to  testify  in  matters  of  life  and  death  ?  When  they  are  brought  into  Court, 
they  are  charged  thus  :  Perchance  you  would  speak  from  conjecture  or 
rumour,  as  a  witness  from  another  witness — having  heard  it  from  '  some 
•trustworthy  man ' — or  perchance  you  are  not  aware  that  we  shall  proceed 
•to  search  and  to  try  you  with  close  questions  and  searching  scrutiny. 
Know  ye  that  not  like  trials  about  money  are  trials  over  life  and  death. 
In  trials  of  money  a  man  may  redeem  his  guilt  by  money,  and  he  may  be 
forgiven.  In  trials  of  life,  the  blood  not  only  of  him  who  has  been  falsely 
•condemned  will  hang  over  the  false  witness,  but  also  that  of  the  seed  of  his 
seed,  even  unto  the  end  of  the  world ;  for  thus  we  find  that  when  Cain 
killed  his  brother,  it  is  said,  '  The  voice  of  thy  brother's  blood  is  crying  to 
me  from  the  ground.'  The  word  blood  stands  there  in  the  plural  number, 
to  indicate  to  you  that  the  blood  of  him,  together  with  that  of  his  seed,  has 
'been  shed.  Adam  was  created  alone,  to  show  you  that  he  who  destroys 
one  single  life  will  be  called  to  account  for  it,  as  if  he  had  destroyed  a 

whole  world But,  on  the  other  hand,  ye  might  say  to  yourselves, 

What  have  we  to  do  with  all  this  misery  here  ?  Remember,  then,  that 
Holy  Writ  has  said  (Lev.  v.  1),  '  If  a  witness  hath  seen  or  known,  if  he 
do  not  utter,  he  shall  bear  his  iniquity.'  But  perchance  ye  might  say, 
Why  shall  we  be  guilty  of  this  man's  blood?  Remember,  then,  what 
is  said  in  Proverbs  (xi.  10),  «'  In  the  destruction  of  the  wicked  there 
is  joy.' " 

The  "  Lex  Talionis  "  is  unknown  to  the  Talmud.  Paying 
*'  measure  for  measure,"  it  says,  t(  is  in  God's  hand  only." 
Bodily  injuries  inflicted  are  to  be  redeemed  by  money ;  and 
here  again  the  Pharisees  had  carried  the  day  against  the 
ISadducees,  who  insisted  upon  the  literal  interpretation  of 
the  "  eye  for  eye."  The  extreme  punishments,  "  flagellation  " 
and  "  death,"  as  ordained  in  the  Mosaic  Code,  were  inflicted 
in  a  humane  manner  unknown,  as  we  have  said,  not  only  to 
the  contemporary  courts  of  antiquity,  but  even  to  those  of 


38  THE  TALMUD. 

Europe  up  to  within  the  last  generation.  Thirty-nine  was 
the  utmost  number  of  strokes  to  be  inflicted :  but — the 
"  loving  one's  neighbour  like  oneself  "  being  constantly  urged 
by  the  Penal  Code  itself,  even  with  regard  to  criminals — 
if  the  life  of  the  culprit  was  in  the  least  degree  endangered 
this  number  was  at  once  reduced.  However  numerous  the 
delinquent's  transgressions,  but  one  punishment  could  be 
decreed  for  them  all.  Not  even  a  fine  and  flagellation  could 
be  pronounced  on  the  same  occasion. 

The  care  taken  of  human  life  was  extreme  indeed.  The 
judges  of  capital  offences  had  to  fast  all  day,  nor  was  the 
sentence  executed  on  the  day  of  the  verdict,  but  it  was  once 
more  subjected  to  scrutiny  by  the  Sanhedrin  the  next  day. 
Even  to  the  last  some  favourable  circumstance  that  might 
turn  the  scale  in  the  prisoner's  favour  was  looked  for.  The 
place  of  execution  was  at  some  distance  from  the  Court,  in 
order  that  time  might  be  given  to  a  witness  or  the  accused 
himself  for  naming  any  fresh  fact  in  his  favour.  A  man  was 
stationed  at  the  entrance  to  the  Court,  with  a  flag  in  his 
hand,  and  at  some  distance  another  man,  on  horseback,  was 
stationed,  in  order  to  stop  the  execution  instantly  if  any 
favourable  circumstance  should  still  come  to  light.  The 
culprit  himself  was  allowed  to  stop  four  or  five  times,  and  to 
be  brought  back  before  the  judges,  if  he  had  still  something 
to  urge  in  his  defence.  Before  him  marched  a  herald,  crying, 
"  The  man  N.  N.,  son  of  N.  N.,  is  being  led  to  execution  for 
having  committed  such  and  such  a  crime;  such  and  such 
are  the  witnesses  against  him;  whosoever  knows  aught  to 
his  favour,  let  him  come  and  proclaim  it."  Ten  yards  from 
the  place  of  execution  they  said  to  him,  "  Confess  thy  sins ; 
every  one  who  confesses  has  part  in  the  world  to  come ;  for 
thus  it  is  written  of  Achan,  to  whom  Joshua  said,  My  son, 
give  now  glory  to  the  God  of  Israel."  If  he  "  could  not " 
offer  any  formal  confession,  he  need  only  say,  "May  my 
death  be  a  redemption  for  all  my  sins."  To  the  last  the 
culprit  was  supported  by  marks  of  profound  and  awful  sym- 
pathy. The  ladies  of  Jerusalem  formed  a  society  which 
provided  a  beverage  of  mixed  myrrh  and  vinegar,  that,  like 


THE  TALMUD.  39 

an  opiate,  benumbed  the  man  when  he  was  being  carried  to 
execution. 

There  were  four  kinds  of  capital  punishment, —  stoning, 
burning,  slaying  with  the  sword,  and  strangling.  Crucifixion 
is  utterly  unknown  to  the  Jewish  law.  "  The  house  of  ston- 
ing "  was  two  stories  high,  "  stoning  "  in  the  Mishnah  being 
merely  a  term  for  breaking  the  culprit's  neck.  It  was  the 
part  of  the  chief  witness  to  precipitate  the  criminal  with  his 
own  hand.  If  he  fell  on  his  breast  he  was  turned  on  his 
back ;  if  the  fall  had  not  killed  him  on  the  spot,  the  second 
witness  had  to  cast  a  stone  on  his  heart ;  if.  he  still  survived, 
then  and  then  onlyd  the  whole  people  hastened  his  death 
by  casting  stones  upon  him.  The  modes  of  strangling  and 
burning  were  almost  identical :  in  both  cases  the  culprit  was 
immersed  to  his  waist  in  soft  mud,  and  two  men  by  tight- 
ening a  cord  wrapped  in  a  soft  cloth  round  his  neck,  caused 
instantaneous  suffocation.  In  the  "  burning  "  a  lighted  wick 
was  thrown  down  his  throat  when  he  opened  his  mouth  at 
his  last  breath.  The  corpse  was  buried  in  a  special  place 
appropriated  to  criminals.  After  a  time,  however,  the  bones 
were  gathered  together  and  transferred  to  the  burial  place 
of  the  culprit's  kin.  The  relations  then  visited  the  judges 
and  the  witnesses,  "  as  much  as  to  say,  we  bear  no  malice 
against  you,  for  a  righteous  judgment  have  ye  judged."  The 
ordinary  ceremonies  of  outer  mourning  were  not  observed  in 
such  cases,  but  lamentation  was  not  prohibited  during  the 
first  period  of  grief — "  for  sorrow  is  from  the  heart."  There 
was  no  confiscation  of  the  culprit's  goods. 

Practically,  capital  punishment  was  abrogated  even  before 
the  Komans  had  taken  it  out  of  the  hands  of  the  Sanhedrin. 
Here  again  the  humanising  influences  of  the  "  Traditions " 
had  been  at  work,  commuting  the  severe  Mosaic  Code.  The 
examination  of  witnesses  had  been  made  so  rigorous  that 
a  sentence  of  capital  punishment  became  almost  impossible. 
When  the  guilt  had,  notwithstanding  all  these  difficulties, 
been  absolutely  brought  home,  some  formal  flaw  was  sure 
to  be  found,  and  the  sentence  was  commuted  to  imprison- 
ment for  life.  The  doctors  of  a  later  period,  notably  Akiba, 


40  THE  TALMUD. 

who,  in  the  midst  of  his  revolutionary  dreams  of  a  new 
Independence,  kept  his  eye  steadily  on  a  reform  of  the  whole 
jurisdiction,  did  not  hesitate  to  pronounce  openly  for  the 
abolition  of  capital  punishment.  A  Court  which  had  pro- 
nounced one  sentence  of  death  in  seven,  or  even  seventy 
years,  received  the  name  of  "  Court  of  Murderers." 

So  far  the  Mishnah,  that  brief  abstract  of  about  eight 
hundred  years'  legal  production.  Jehudah,  the  "  Eedactor," 
had  excluded  all  but  the  best  authenticated  traditions,  as 
well  as  all  discussion  and  exegesis,  unless  where  particularly 
necessary.  The  vast  mass  of  these  materials  was  now  also 
collected,  as  a  sort  of  apocryphal  oral  code.  We  have, 
dating  from  a  few  generations  after  the  redaction  of  the 
official  Mishnah,  a  so-called  external  Mishnah  (Boraita) ; 
further  the  discussions  and  additions  belonging  by  rights 
to  the  Mishnah,  called  Tosefta  (Supplement);  and,  finally, 
the  exegesis  and  methodology  of  the  Halacha  (Sifri,  Sifra, 
Mechilta),  much  of  which  was  afterwards  embodied  in  the 
Talmud. 

The  Mishnah,  being  formed  into  a  code,  became  in  its  turn 
what  the  Scripture  had  been,  a  basis  of  development  and 
discussion.  It  had  to  be  linked  to  the  Bible,  it  became  im- 
pregnated with  and  obscured  by  speculations,  new  traditions 
sprang  up,  new  methods  were  invented,  casuistry  assumed 
its  sway — as  it  did  in  the  legal  schools  that  flourished  at 
that  period  at  Rome,  at  Alexandria,  at  Berytus, — and  the 
Gemara  ensued.  A  double  Gemara :  one,  the  expression  of 
the  schools  in  Palestine,  called  that  of  Jerusalem,  redacted 
at  Tiberias  (not  at  Jerusalem)  about  390  A.D.,  and  written 
in  what  may  be  called  "  East  Aramaean ; "  the  other,  redacted 
at  Syra  in  Babylonia,  edited  by  E.  Ashe  (365-427  A.D.). 
The  final  close  of  this  codex,  however,  the  collecting  and 
sifting  of  which  took  just  sixty  years,  is  due  to  the  school 
of  the  "  Saboraim  "  at  the  end  of  the  fifth  century  A.D.  The 
Babylonian  Gemara  is  the  expression  of  the  academies  of  Syra, 
Nehardea,  Pum-Veditha,  Mahusa,  and  other  places,  during 
six  or  seven  generations  of  continuous  development.  This 
"  Babylonian  "  Talmud  is  couched  in  "  Western  Aramaean." 


THE  TALMUD.  41 

Neither  of  the  two  codes  was  written  down  at  first,  and 
neither  has  survived  in  its  completeness.  Whether  there 
ever  was  a  double  Gemara  to  all  the  six  or  even  the  first  five 
divisions  of  the  Mishnah  (the  sixth  having  early  fallen  into 
disuse),  is  at  least  very  doubtful.  Much  however  that 
existed  has  been  lost.  The  Babylonian  Talmud  is  about 
four  times  as  large  as  that  of  Jerusalem.  Its  thirty-six 
treatises  now  cover,  in  our  editions,  printed  with  the  most 
prominent  commentaries  (Rashi  and  Tosafoth),  exactly  2947 
folio  leaves  in  twelve  folio  volumes,  the  pagination  of  which 
is  kept  uniform  in  almost  all  editions.  If,  however,  the 
extraneous  portions  are  subtracted,  it  is  only  about  ten  or 
eleven  times  as  large  as  the  Mishnah,  which  was  redacted 
just  as  many  generations  before  the  Talmud. 

How  the  Talmud  itself  became  by  degrees  what  the 
Mishnah  had  been  to  the  Gemara,  and  what  the  Scripture 
had  been  to  the  early  Scribes,  viz.  a  Text ;  how  the  "  Amo- 
raim  "  (speakers),  "Saboraim,"  and  "Gaonim,"  those  Epigoni 
of  the  "Scribes,"  made  it  the  centre  of  their  activity  for 
centuries;  what  endless  commentaries,  dissertations,  exposi- 
tions, responses,  novelise,  abstracts,  &c.,  grew  out  of  it,  we 
cannot  here  tell.  Only  this  much  we  will  add,  that  the 
Talmud,  as  such,  was  never  formally  accepted  by  the  nation, 
by  either  General  or  Special  Council.  Its  legal  decisions, 
as  derived  from  the  highest  authorities,  certainly  formed  the 
basis  of  the  religious  law,  the  norm  of  all  future  decisions : 
as  undoubtedly  the  Talmud  is  the  most  trustworthy  canon  of 
Jewish  tradition.  But  its  popularity  is  much  more  due  to  an 
extraneous  cause.  During  the  persecutions  against  the  Jews 
in  the  Persian  empire,  under  Jesdegerd  II.,  Firuz,  and 
Kobad,  the  schools  were  closed  for  about  eighty  years.  The 
living  development  of  the  law  being  stopped,  the  book 
obtained  a  supreme  authority,  such  as  had  probably  never 
been  dreamt  of  by  its  authors.  Need  we  add  that  what 
authority  was  silently  vested  in  it  belonged  exclusively  to  its 
legal  portions?  The  other,  the  " haggadistic "  or  legendary 
portion,  was  "  poetry,"  a  thing  beloved  by  women  and  chil- 
dren and  by  those  still  and  pensive  minds  which  delight  in 


42  THE  TALMUD. 

flowers  and  in  the  song  of  wild  birds.  The  "  Authorities  " 
themselves  often  enough  set  their  faces  against  it,  repudiated 
it  and  explained  it  away.  But  the  people  clung  to  it,  and 
in  course  of  time  gave  to  it  and  it  alone  the  encyclopaedic 
name  of  "  Midrash." 

We  have  now  to  say  a  few  words  respecting  the  language 
in  which  these  documents  are  couched,  as  furnishing  an  addi- 
tional key  to  the  mode  of  life  and  thoughts  of  the  period. 

The  language  of  the  Mishnah  is  as  pure  a  Hebrew  as  can 
be  expected  in  those  days.  The  people  themselves  spoke,  as 
we  mentioned  above,  a  corrupt  Chaldee  or  Aramaic,  mixed 
with  Greek  and  Latin.  Many  prayers  of  the  period,  the 
Targums,  the  Gemaras,  are  conceived  in  that  idiom.  Even 
the  Mishnah  itself  could  not  exclude  these  all-pervading 
foreign  elements.  Many  legal  terms,  many  names  of  pro- 
ducts, of  heathen  feasts,  of  household  furniture,  of  meat  and 
drink,  of  fruits  and  garments,  are  borrowed  from  the  classical 
languages.  Here  is  a  curious  addition  to  the  curious  history 
of  words !  The  bread  which  the  Semites  had  cast  upon  the 
waters,  in  the  archaic  Phoenician  times,  came  back  to  them 
after  many  days.  If  they  had  given  to  the  early  Greeks  the 
names  for  weights  and  measures,1  for  spice  and  aromas,2 
every  one  of  which  is  Hebrew:  if  they  had  imported  the 
"  sapphire,  jasper,  emerald,"  the  fine  materials  for  garments,3 
and  the  garments  themselves — as  indeed  the  well-known 
WTCOV  is  but  the  Hebrew  name  for  Joseph's  coat  in  the  Bible 
— if  the  musical  instruments,4  the  plants,  vessels,  writing 
materials,  and  last,  not  least,  the  "  alphabet "  itself,  came 
from  the  Semites  :  the  Greek  and  Latin  idioms  repaid  them 
in  the  Talmudical  period  with  full  interest,  to  the  great 
distress  of  the  later  scholiasts  and  lexicographers.  The 
Aramaic  itself  was,  as  we  said,  the  language  of  the  common 
people.  It  was,  in  itself,  a  most  pellucid  and  picturesque 
idiom,  lending  itself  admirably  not  only  to  the  epigrammatic 
terseness  of  the  Gemara,  but  also  to  those  profoundly  poetical 


/J.va, 

2  jitu^o,   Kivvdfj.caiJ.ov,  Kaffia,    vdpfios, 
i:  Kp6itos,  &c. 


3  flvffffos,  KapTraff 
4 


os,  ffiv8a>v. 


THE  TALMUD. 


43 


conceptions  of  the  daily  phenomena,  which  had  penetrated 
even  into  the  cry  of  the  watchmen,  the  password  of  the 
temple-guards,  and  the  routine-formula  of  the  levitical 
functionary.  Unfortunately,  it  was  too  poetical  at  times. 
Matters  of  a  purely  metaphysical  nature,  which  afterwards 
grew  into  dogmas  through  its  vague  phraseology,  assumed 
very  monstrous  shapes  indeed.  But  it  had  become  in  the 
hands  of  the  people  a  mongrel  idiom ;  and,  though  gifted 
with  a  fine  feeling  for  the  distinguishing  characters  of  each 
of  the  languages  then  in  common  use  ("  Aramaic  lends  itself 
best  to  elegies,  Greek  to  hymns,  Hebrew  to  prayer,  Koman 
to  martial  compositions,"  as  a  common  saying  has  it),  they 
yet  mixed  them  all  up,  somewhat  in  the  manner  of  the 
Pennsylvanians  of  to-day.  After  all,  it  was  but  the  faithful 
reflex  of  those  who  made  this  idiom  an  enduring  language. 
These  "  Masters  of  the  Law "  formed  the  most  mixed 
assembly  in  the  world.  There  were  not  only  natives  of  all 
the  parts  of  the  world-wide  Koman  empire  among  them,  but 
also  denizens  of  Arabia  and  India  ;  a  fact  which  accounts  for 
many  phenomena  in  the  Talmud.  But  there  is  hardly  any- 
thing of  domestic  or  public  purport,  which  was  not  called 
either  by  its  Greek  or  Latin  name,  or  by  both,  and  generally 
in  so  questionable  a  shape,  and  in  such  obsolete  forms,  that 
both  classical  and  Semitic  scholars  have  often  need  to  go 
through  a  whole  course  of  archaeology  and  antiquities  before 
unravelling  it.1  Save  only  one  province,  that  of  agriculture. 
This  alone,  together  with  some  other  trades,  had  retained 
the  old  homely  Semitic  words:  thereby  indicating,  not,  as 


1  Greek  or  Latin,  or  both,  were  the 
terms  commonly  employed  by  them 
for  the  table  (rpmre^a,  tabula,  rpi- 
o-fceA^s,  rpiTrows),  the  chair,  the  bench, 
the  cushion  (subsellium,  accubitum), 
the  room  in  which  they  lived  and 
slept  (ico'trw,  evv-f],  e|eSpa),  the  cup 
(cyathus,  phiala  potoria)  out  of  which 
they  drank,  the  eating  and  drinking 
itself  (cenogarum,  collyra,  napo^i?, 
y \ZVKOS,  acraton,  opsonium,  &c.).  Of 
their  dress  we  have  the  CTTOATJ,  sagum, 
dalmatica,  braccse,  chirodota.  On 


their  head  they  wore  a  pileus,  and 
they  girded  themselves  with  a  CCOJ/TJ. 
The  words  sandalium,  solea,  soleusy 
talaria,  impilia,  indicate  the  footgear. 
Ladies  adorned  themselves  with  the 
catella,  cochlear,  irSpirrj,  and  other 
sorts  of  rings  and  bracelets,  and  in 
general  whatever  appertained  to  a 
Greek  or  Koman  lady's  fine  apparel. 
Among  the  arms  which  the  men  wore 
are  mentioned  the  \6yxrj,  the  spearr 
the  ndxaipa  (a  word  found  in  Genesis), 
the  pugio. 


44  THE  TALMUD. 

'ignorance  might  be  led  to  conclude,  that  the  nation  was 
averse  to  it,  but  exactly  the  contrary :  that  from  the  early 
days  of  Joshua  they  had  never  ceased  to  cherish  the  thought 
of  sitting  under  their  own  vine  and  fig-tree.  We  refer  for 
this  point  to  the  idyllic  picture  given  in  the  Mishnah  of  the 
procession  that  went  up  to  Jerusalem  with  the  first-fruits, 
accompanied  by  the  sound  of  the  flute,  the  sacrificial  bull 
with  gilt  horns  and  an  olive-garland  round  his  head  proudly 
inarching  in  front. 

The  Talmud  does,  indeed,  offer  us  a  perfect  picture  of  the 
cosmopolitanism  and  luxury  of  those  final  days  of  Rome, 
such  as  but  few  classical  or  postclassical  writings  contain. 
"We  find  mention  made  of  Spanish  fish,  of  Cretan  apples, 
Bithynian  cheese,  Egyptian  lentils  and  beans,  Greek  and 
Egyptian  pumpkins,  Italian  wine,  Median  beer,  Egyptian 
'Zyphus :  garments  were  imported  from  Pelusium  and  India, 
shirts  from  Cilicia,  and  veils  from  Arabia.  To  the  Arabic, 
Persian,  and  Indian  materials  contained,  in  addition  to  these, 
in  the  Gemara,  a  bare  allusion  may  suffice.  So  much  we 
venture  to  predict,  that  when  once  archaeological  and  lin- 
guistic science  shall  turn  to  this  field,  they  will  not  leave  it 
again  soon. 

We  had  long  pondered  over  the  best  way  of  illustrating  to 
our  readers  the  extraordinary  manner  in  which  the  "Hag- 
gadah,"  that  second  current  of  the  Talmud,  of  which  we 
spoke  in  the  introduction,  suddenly  interrupts  the  course  of 
the  "  Halacha," — when  we  bethought  ourselves  of  the  device 
of  an  old  master.  It  was  a  hot  Eastern  afternoon,  and  while 
he  was  expounding  some  intricate  subtlety  of  the  law,  his 
<hearers  quietly  fell  away  in  drowsy  slumbers.  All  of  a 
sudden  he  burst  out :  "  There  was  once  a  woman  in  Egypt 
who  brought  forth  at  one  birth  six  hundred  thousand  men." 
And  our  readers  may  fancy  how  his  audience  started  up  at 
this  remarkable  tale  of  the  prolific  Egyptian  woman.  Her 
name,  the  master  calmly  proceeded,  was  Jochebed,  and  she 
was  the  mother  of  Moses,  who  was  worth  as  much  as  all 
those  six  hundred  thousand  armed  men  together  who  went 
up  from  Egypt.  The  Professor  then,  after  a  brief  legendary 


THE  TALMUD.  45 

digression,  proceeded  with  his  legal  intricacies,  and  his 
hearers  slept  no  more  that  afternoon.  An  Eastern  mind 
seems  peculiarly  constituted.  Its  passionate  love  for  things- 
wise  and  witty,  for  stories  and  tales,  for  parables  and 
apologues,  does  not  leave  it  even  in  its  most  severe  studies. 
They  are  constantly  needed,  it  would  appear,  to  keep  the 
current  of  its  thoughts  in  motion ;  they  are  the  playthings 
of  the  grown-up  children  of  the  Orient.  The  Haggadah,  too? 
has  an  exegesis,  a  system,  a  method  of  its  own.  They  are 
peculiar,  fantastic  things.  We  would  rather  not  follow  too. 
closely  its  learned  divisions  into  homiletical,  ethical,  his- 
torical, general  and  special  Haggadah. 

The  Haggadah  in  general  transforms  Scripture,  as  we  said, 
into  a  thousand  themes  for  its  variations.  Everything  being; 
bound  up  in  the  Bible — the  beginning  and  the  end — there 
must  be  an  answer  in  it  to  all  questions.  Find  the  key,  and 
all  the  riddles  in  it  are  solved.  The  persons  of  the  Bible — 
the  kings  and  the  patriarchs,  the  heroes  and  the  prophets,, 
the  women  and  the  children,  what  they  did  and  suffered^ 
their  happiness  and  their  doom,  their  words  and  their  lives 
—became,  apart  from  their  presupposed  historical  reality,, 
a  symbol  and  an  allegory.  And  what  the  narrative  had 
omitted,  the  Haggadah  supplied  in  many  variations.  It  filled 
up  these  gaps,  as  a  prophet  looking  into  the  past  might  do  ;  it 
explained  the  motives  ;  it  enlarged  the  story  ;  it  found  con- 
nections between  the  remotest  countries,  ages,  and  people,, 
often  with  a  startling  realism ;  it  drew  sublime  morals, 
from  the  most  commonplace  facts.  Yet  it  did  all  this  by 
quick  and  sudden  motions,  to  us  most  foreign ;  and  hence  the 
frequent  misunderstanding  of  its  strange  and  wayward  moods. 

Passing  strange,  indeed,  are  the  ways  of  this  Prophetess  of 
the  Exile,  who  appears  wherever  and  whenever  she  listeth^ 
and  disappears  as  suddenly.  Well  can  we  understand  the 
distress  of  mind  in  a  medieval  divine,  or  even  in  a  modern 
savant,  who,  bent  upon  following  the  most  subtle  windings  of 
some  scientific  debate  in  the  Talmudical  pages — geometrical^ 
botanical,  financial,  or  otherwise — as  it  revolves  round  the 
Sabbath  journey,  the  raising  of  seeds,  the  computation  ot 


46  THE  TALMUD. 

tithes  and  taxes — feels,  as  it  were,  the  ground  suddenly 
give  way.  The  loud  voices  grow  thin,  the  doors  and  walls  of 
the  school-room  vanish  before  his  eyes,  and  in  their  place 
uprises  Kome  the  Great,  the  Urbs  et  Orbis,  and  her  million- 
voiced  life.  Or  the  blooming  vineyards  round  that  other 
City  of  Hills,  Jerusalem  the  Golden  herself,  are  seen,  and 
white-clad  virgins  move  dreamily  among  them.  Snatches  of 
their  songs  are  heard,  the  rhythm  of  their  choric  dances  rises 
and  falls:  it  is  the  most  dread  Day  of  Atonement  itself, 
which,  in  poetical  contrast,  was  chosen  by  the  "  Kose  of 
Sharon  "  as  a  day  of  rejoicing  to  walk  among  those  waving 
lily-fields  and  vine-clad  slopes.  Or  the  clarion  of  rebellion 
rings  high  and  shrill  through  the  complicated  debate,  and 
Belshazzar,  the  story  of  whose  ghastly  banquet  is  told  with 
all  the  additions  of  maddening  horror,  is  doing  service  for 
Nero  the  bloody ;  or  Nebuchadnezzar,  the  Babylonian  tyrant, 
and  all  his  hosts,  are  cursed  with  a  yelling  curse — a  propos 
of  some  utterly  inappropriate  legal  point;  while  to  the 
initiated  he  stands  for  Titus  the — at  last  exploded — "Delight 
of  Humanity."  The  symbols  and  hieroglyphs  of  the  Hag- 
gadah,  when  fully  explained  some  day,  will  indeed  form  a 
very  curious  contribution  to  the  unwritten  history  of  man. 
Often — far  too  often  for  the  interests  of  study  and  the  glory 
of  the  human  race — does  the  steady  tramp  of  the  Eoman 
cohort,  the  pass-word  of  the  revolution,  the  shriek  and 
clangour  of  the  bloody  field,  interrupt  these  debates,  and  the 
arguing  masters  and  disciples  don  their  arms,  and,  with  the 
cry  "  Jerusalem  and  Liberty,"  rush  to  the  fray. 

Those  who  look  with  an  eye  of  disfavour  upon  all  these 
extraneous  matters  as  represented  by  the  Haggadah  in  the 
Talmud — the  fairy  tales  and  the  jests,  the  stories  and  the 
parables,  and  all  that  strange  agglomeration  of  foreign 
things  crystallized  around  the  legal  kernel — should  remem- 
ber, above  all,  one  fact.  As  this  tangled  mass  lies  before  us, 
it  represents  at  best  a  series  of  photographic  slides,  half 
broken,  mutilated  and  faded :  though  what  remains  of  them 
is  startlingly  faithful  to  the  original.  As  the  disciple  had 
retained,  in  his  memory  or  his  quick  notes,  the  tenor  of  the 


THE  TALMUD.  47 

single  debates,  interspersed  with  the  thousand  allusions, 
reminiscences,  apergus,  facts,  quotations,  and  the  rest,  so  he 
perpetuated  it — sometimes  well,  sometimes  ill.  If  well,  we 
have  a  feeling  as  if,  after  a  long  spell  of  musings  or  pon- 
derings,  we  were  trying  to  retrace  the  course  of  our  ideas — 
and  the  most  incongruous  things  spring  up  and  disappear, 
apparently  without  rhyme  or  reason.  And  yet  there  is  a 
deep  significance  and  connection  in  them.  Creeping  or 
flying,  melodious  or  grating,  they  carry  us  on ;  and  there  is 
just  this  difference  in  the  Talmudical  wanderings,  that  they 
never  lose  themselves.  Suddenly,  when  least  expected,  the 
original  question  is  repeated,  together  with  the  answer, 
distilled  as  it  were  out  of  these  thousand  foreign  things  of 
which  we  did  not  always  see  the  drift.  If  ill  reported,  the 
page  becomes  like  a  broken  dream,  a  half-transparent  pa- 
limpsest. Would  it  perhaps  have  been  better  if  a  wise 
discretion  had  guided  the  hands  of  the  first  redactors  ?  We 
think  not.  The  most  childish  of  trifles,  found  in  an  Assyrian 
mound,  is  of  value  to  him  who  understands  such  things,  and 
who  from  them  may  deduce  a  number  of  surprisingly  im- 
portant results. 

We  shall  devote  the  brief  space  that  remains,  to  this  Hag- 
gadah.  And  for  a  general  picture  of  it  we  shall  refer  to 
Bunyan,  who,  speaking  of  his  own  book,  which — mutatis 
mutandis — is  very  Haggadistic,  unknowingly  describes  the 
Haggadah  as  accurately  as  can  be  : — 

"  .  .  .  .  Would'st  tliou  divert  thyself  from  melancholy  ? 
Would'st  thou  be  pleasant,  yet  be  far  from  folly  ? 
Would'st  thou  read  riddles  and  their  explanation  ? 
Or  else  be  drowned  in  thy  contemplation  ? 
Dost  thou  love  picking  meat  ?     Or  would'st  thou  see 
A  man  i'  the  clouds,  and  hear  him  speak  to  thee  ? 
Would'st  thou  be  in  a  dream,  and  yet  not  sleep  ? 
Or,  would'st  thou  in  a  moment  laugh  and  weep  ? 
Would'st  lose  thyself,  and  catch  no  harm  ? 
And  find  thyself  again  without  a  charm  ? 
Would'st  read  thyself,  and  read  thou  know'st  not  what  ? 
And  yet  know  whether  thou  art  blest  or  not 
By  reading  the  same  lines  ?     0  then  come  hither, 
And  lay  this  book,  thy  head  and  heart  together " 


48  THE  TALMUD. 

We  would  not  reproach  those  who,  often  with  the  best 
intentions  in  the  world,  have  brought  almost  the  entire 
Haggadistic  province  into  disrepute.  We  really  do  not 
wonder  that  the  so-called  "rabbinical  stories,"  that  have 
from  time  to  time  been  brought  before  the  English  public,, 
have  not  met  with  the  most  flattering  reception.  The 
Talmud,  which  has  a  drastic  word  for  every  occasion,  says,, 
u  They  dived  into  an  ocean,  and  brought  up  a  potsherd." 
First  of  all,  these  stories  form  only  a  small  item  in  the  vast 
mass  of  allegories,  parables,  and  the  like,  that  make  up  the 
Haggadah.  And  they  were  partly  ill-chosen,  partly  badly 
rendered,  and  partly  did  not  even  belong  to  the  Talmud,  but 
to  some  recent  Jewish  story-book.  Herder — to  name  the 
most  eminent  judge  of  the  "  Poetry  of  Peoples," — has 
extolled  what  he  saw  of  the  genuine  specimens,  in  transcen- 
dental terms.  And,  in  truth,  not  only  is  the  entire  world  of 
pious  biblical  legend  which  Islam  has  said  and  sung  in  its 
many  tongues,  to  the  delight  of  the  wise  and  simple  for 
twelve  centuries,  now  to  be  found  either  in  embryo  or  fully 
developed  in  the  Haggadah,  but  much  that  is  familiar 
among  ourselves  in  the  circles  of  medieval  sagas,  in  Dante7 
in  Boccaccio,  in  Cervantes,  in  Milton,  in  Bunyan,  has  con- 
sciously or  unconsciously  flowed  out  of  this  wondrous  realm, 
the  Haggadah.  That  much  of  it  is  overstrained,  even  ac- 
cording to  Eastern  notions,  we  do  not  deny.  But  there  are 
feeble  passages  even  in  Homer  and  Shakspeare,  and  there 
are  always  people  with  a  happy  instinct  of  picking  out  the 
weakest  portions  of  a  work;  while  even  the  best  pages  of 
Shakspeare  and  Homer  are  apt  to  be  spoiled  by  awkward 
manipulation.  At  the  same  time  we  are  far  from  advising 
a  wholesale  translation  of  these  Haggadistic  productions. 
Nothing  could  be  more  tedious  than  a  continuous  course  of 
such  reading,  though  choice  bits  from  them  would  satisfy 
even  the  most  fastidious  critic.  And  sucli  bits,  scattered 
through  the  Talmud,  are  delightfully  refreshing. 

It  is,  unfortunately,  not  in  our  power  to  indicate  any 
specimens  of  its  strikingly  keen  interpretations,  of  its 
gorgeous  dreams,  its — 


THE  TALMUD,  49 

"  Beautiful  old  stories, 
Tales  of  angels,  fairy  legends, 
Stilly  histories  of  martyrs, 
Festal  songs  and  words  of  wisdom  ; 
Hyperboles,  most  quaint  it  may  be, 
Yet  replete  witli  strength,  and  fire, 
And  faith — how  they  gleam, 
And  glow  and  glitter  !  .  .  . " 

as  Heine  lias  it. 

It  seems  of  more  moment  to  call  attention  to  an  entirely 
new  branch  of  investigation,  namely,  Talmudical  metaphysics 
and  ethics,  such  as  may  be  gleaned  from  the  Haggadah,  of 
which  we  shall  now  take  a  brief  glance. 

Beginning  with  the  Creation,  we  find  the  gradual  develop- 
ment of  the  Cosmos  fully  developed  by  the  Talmud.  It 
assumes  destruction  after  destruction,  stage  after  stage.  And 
in  their  quaintly  ingenious  manner  the  Masters  refer  to  the 
verse  in  Genesis,  "  And  God  saw  all  that  he  had  made,  and 
behold  it  was  very  good,"  and  to  that  other  in  Eccles.  iii.  1L 
"  God  created  everything  in  its  proper  season  ;"  and  argue 
""  He  created  worlds  upon  worlds,  and  destroyed  them  one 
after  the  other,  until  He  created  this  world.  He  then  said, 
•"  This  pleases  me,  the  others  did  not ;" — "  in  its  proper 
season" — " it  was  not  meet  to  create  tJm  world  until  now." 

The  Talmud  assumes  some  original  substance,  itself  created 
by  God,  out  of  which  the  Universe  was  shaped.  There  is  a 
perceptible  leaning  to  the  early  Greek  schools.  "  One  or 
three  things  were  before  this  world:  Water,  Fire,  and  Wind: 
Water  begat  the  Darkness,  Fire  begat  Light,  and  Wind 
begat  the  Spirit  of  Wisdom."  The  How  of  the  creation 
was  not  even  matter  of  speculation.  The  co-operation  of 
angels,  whose  existence  was  warranted  by  Scripture,  and  a 
whole  hierarchy  of  whom  had  been  built  up  under  Persian 
influences,  was  distinctly  denied.  In  a  discussion  about  the 
day  of  their  creation  it  is  agreed,  on  all  hands,  that  there 
were  no  angels  at  first,  "lest  men  might  say  *  Michael 
spanned  out  the  firmament  on  the  south,  and  Gabriel  to  the 
north.'  "  There  is  a  distinct  foreshadowing  of  the  gnostic 
Demiurgos — that  antique  link  between  the  Divine  Spirit  and 
the  World  of  Matter — to  be  found  in  the  Talmud.  What 

E 


50 


THE  TALMUD. 


with  Plato  were  the  Ideas,  with  Philo  the  Logos,  with  the 
Kabbalists  the  "  World  of  Aziluth,"  what  the  Gnostics  called 
more  emphatically  the  wisdom  (o-o^ia)  or  power  (Svva/jiis), 
and  Plotinus  the  vovs,  that  the  Talmudical  Authors  call 
Metatron.1  The  angels — whose  names,  according  to  the 
Talmud  itself,  the  Jews  brought  back  from  Babylon — playr 
after  the  exile,  a  very  different  part  from  those  before  the 
exile.  They  are,  in  fact,  more  or  less  Persian :  as  are  also 
for  the  most  part  all  incantations,  the  magical  cures,  the 
sidereal  influences,  and  the  rest  of  the  "  heathen  "  elements 
contained  in  the  Talmud.  Even  the  number  of  the  Angelic 
Princes  is  seven,  like  that  of  the  Amesha-Qpentas,  and  their 
Hebrew  names  and  their  functions  correspond,  as  nearly  as 
can  be,  to  those  of  their  Persian  prototypes,  who,  on  their 
own  part,  have  only  at  this  moment  been  discovered  to  be 
merely  allegorical  names  for  God's  supreme  qualities.  Much 
as  the  Talmudical  authorities  inveigh  against  those  "  heathen 
ways,"  sympathetic  cures,  the  exorcisms  of  demons,  the 
charms,  and  the  rest,  the  working  of  miracles,  very  much  in 
vogue  in  those  days,  yet  they  themselves  were  drawn  into 
large  concessions  to  angels  and  demons.  Besides  the  seven 
Angel  Princes,  there  are  hosts  of  ministering  angels — the 
Persian  Yazatas — whose  functions,  besides  that  of  being 
messengers,  are  twofold ;  to  praise  God  and  to  be  guardians  of 
man.  In  their  first  capacity  they  are  daily  created  by  God's 
breath  out  of  a  stream  of  fire  that  rolls  its  waves  under  the  di- 
vine throne.  As  guardian  angels  (Persian  Fravashis)  two  of 
them  accompany  every  man,  and  for  every  new  good  deed  man 
acquires  a  new  guardian  angel,  who  always  watches  over  his 
steps.  When  the  righteous  dies,  three  hosts  of  angels  meet 
him.  One  says  (in  the  words  of  Scripture)  "  He  shall  go  in 
peace,"  the  second  takes  up  the  strain  and  says,  "Who  has 
walked  in  righteousness,"  and  the  third  concludes,  "  Let  him 
come  in  peace  and  rest  upon  his  bed."  If  the  wicked  leaves 
the  world,  three  hosts  of  wicked  angels  come  to  meet  him.2 


1  This  name  is  most  probably  no- 
thing but  Mithra. 

2  This  science  of  angels  and  demons 
(Sliedim  =  Pers.  Daevas)  —  links  be- 


tween men  and  angels,  or  rather 
personified  passions — which  flou- 
rished very  vigorously  at  the  begin- 
ning of  Christianity,  is,  altogether, 


THE  TALMUD.  51 

With  regard  to  the  providential  guidance  of  the  Universe, 
this  was  in  God's  hand  alone.  As  He  is  the  sole  Creator 
and  Legislator,  so  also  is  He  the  sole  arbiter  of  destinies. 
"  Every  nation,"  the  Talmud  says,  "  has  its  special  guardian 
angel,  its  horoscopes,  its  ruling  planets  and  stars.  But  there 
is  no  planet  for  Israel.  Israel  shall  look  but  to  Him.  There 
is  no  mediator  between  those  who  are  called  His  children, 
and  their  Father  which  is  in  Heaven."  The  Jerusalem 
Talmud  —  written  under  the  direct  influence  of  Koman 
manners  and  customs,  has  the  following  parable:  "A  man 
has  a  patron.  If  some  evil  happens  to  him,  he  does  not 
enter  suddenly  into  the  presence  of  this  patron,  but  he  goes 
and  stands  at  the  door  of  his  house.  He  does  not  ask  for  the 
patron,  but  for  his  favourite  slave,  or  his  son,  who  then  goes 
and  tells  the  master  inside :  The  man  N.  N.  is  standing  at 
the  gate  of  the  hall,  shall  he  come  in  or  not  ? — Not  so  the 
Holy,  praised  be  He.  If  misfortune  comes  upon  a  man,  let 
him  not  cry  to  Michael  and  not  to  Gabriel,  but  unto  Me 
let  him  cry,  and  I  will  answer  him  right  speedily — as  it  is 
said,  Every  one  who  shall  call  on  the  name  of  the  Lord 
shall  be  saved." 

The  end  and  aim  of  Creation  is  man,  who,  therefore,  was 
created  last,  rt  when  everything  was  ready  for  his  reception." 
When  he  has  reached  the  perfection  of  virtue  "  he  is  higher 
than  the  angels  themselves." 

Miracles  are  considered  by  the  Talmud — much  as  Leibnitz 
regards  all  the  movements  of  every  limb  of  our  body — as 
only  possible  through  a  sort  of  "  prestabilitated  harmony," 
i.e.,  the  course  of  creation  was  not  disturbed  by  them,  but 
they  were  all  primevally  "existing,"  "pre-ordained."  They 
were  "  created "  at  the  end  of  all  other  things,  in  the 
gloaming  of  the  sixth  day.  Among  them,  however,  was — 
and  this  will  interest  our  palaeographers — also  the  art  of 
writing :  an  invention  considered  beyond  all  arts :  nothing 
short  of  a  miracle.  Creation,  together  with  these  so-called 
exceptions,  once  established,  nothing  could  be  altered  in  it. 


one  of  the  most  interesting,  particu- 
larly with  regard  to  the  striking 
parallels  it  offers  between  Judaism, 


Christianity,  Islam,  and  Zoroastrian- 
ism  :  but  we  forbear  to  enlarge  upon 


it. 


E   2 


52  THE  TALMUD. 

The  Laws  of  Nature  went  on  by  their  own  immutable  force, 
however  much  evil  might  spring  therefrom.  "  These  wicked 
ones  not  only  vulgarize  my  coin,"  says  the  Haggadah  with 
reference  to  the  propagation  of  the  evil-doers  and  their  kin, 
bearing  the  human  face  divine,  "  but  they  actually  make  me 
impress  base  coin  with  my  own  stamp." 

God's  real  name  is  ineffable ;  but  there  are  many  designa- 
tions indicative  of  his  qualities,  such  as  the  Merciful  (Each- 
man,  a  name  of  frequent  occurrence  both  in  the  Koran  and 
in  the  Talmud),  the  Holy  One,  the  Place,  the  Heavens,  the 
Word,  Our  Father  which  is  in  Heaven,  the  Almighty, 
the  Shechinah,  or  Sacred  Presence. 

The  doctrine  of  the  soul  bears  more  the  impress  of  the 
Platonic  than  of  the  Aristotelian  school.  It  is  held  to  be 
pre-existing.  All  souls  that  are  ever  to  be  united  to  bodies 
have  been  created  once  for  all,  and  are  hidden  away  from 
the  first  moment  of  creation.  They,  being  creatures  of  the 
highest  realms,  are  cognizant  of  all  things,  but,  at  the  hour 
of  their  birth  in  a  human  body,  an  angel  touches  the  mouth 
of  the  child,  which  causes  it  to  forget  all  that  has  been. 
Very  striking  is  the  comparison  between  the  soul  and  God, 
a  comparison  which  has  an  almost  pantheistic  look.  "As 
God  fills  the  whole  universe,"  says  the  Haggadah,  "  so  the 
eoul  fills  the  whole  body;  as  God  sees  and  is  not  seen,  so 
the  soul  sees  and  is  not  seen;  as  God  nourishes  the  whole 
•universe,  so  the  soul  nourishes  the  whole  body ;  as  God  is 
.pure,  so  the  soul  is  pure."  This  purity  is  specially  dwelt 
upon  in  contradistinction  to  the  theory  of  hereditary  sin, 
which  is  denied.  "  There  is  no  death  without  individual 
sin,  no  pain  without  individual  transgression.  That  same 
spirit  that  dictated  in  the  Pentateuch :  *  And  parents  shall 
not  die  for  their  children,  nor  the  children  for  their  parents/ 
has  ordained  that  no  one  should  be  punished  for  another's 
transgressions."  In  the  judgment  on  sin  the  animus  is  taken 
into  consideration.  The  desire  to  commit  the  vice  is  held  to 
be  more  wicked  than  the  vice  itself. 

The  fear  of  God,  or  a  virtuous  life,  the  whole  aim  and  end 
of  a  man's  existence,  is  entirely  in  man's  hand.  "Every- 
thing is  in  God's  hand  save  the  fear  of  God."  But  "  one 


THE  TALMUD.  53 

hour  of  repentance  is  better  than  the  whole  world  to  corne." 
The  fullest  liberty  is  granted  in  this  respect  to  every  human 
being,  though  the  help  of  God  is  necessary  for  carrying  it  out. 

The  dogma  of  the  Resurrection  and  of  Immortality, 
vaguely  indicated  in  the  various  parts  of  the  Old  Testament, 
has  been  fixed  by  the  Talmud,  and  traced  to  several  biblical 
passages.  Various  are  the  similes  by  which  the  relation  of 
this  world  to  the  world  to  come  is  indicated.  This  world  is 
like  unto  a  "  Prosdora  "  to  the  next :  "  Prepare  thyself  in 
the  hall,  that  thou  mayest  be  admitted  into  the  palace :"  or 
"  This  world  is  like  a  roadside  inn  (hospitium),  but  the 
world  to  come  is  like  the  real  home."  The  righteous  are 
represented  as  perfecting  themselves  and  developing  all 
their  highest  faculties  even  in  the  next  world ;  "  for  the 
righteous  there  is  no  rest,  neither  in  this  world  nor  in 
the  next,  for  they  go,  say  the  Scriptures,  from  host  to  host, 
from  striving  to  striving : — they  will  see  God  in  Zion."  How 
all  its  deeds  and  the  hour  when  they  were  committed  are 
unfolded  to  the  sight  of  the  departed  soul,  the  terrors  of  the 
grave,  the  rolling  back  to  Jerusalem  on  the  day  of  the  great 
trumpet,  we  need  not  here  tell  in  detail.  These  half-meta- 
physical half-mystical  speculations  are  throughout  in  the 
manner  of  the  more  poetical  early  Church  fathers  of  old  and 
of  Bunyan  in  our  times.  Only  the  glow  of  imagination 
and  the  conciseness  of  language  in  which  they  are  mostly 
told  in  the  Talmud  contrast  favourably  with  the  verboseness 
of  later  times.  The  Resurrection  is  to  take  place  by  the 
mystic  power  of  the  "  Dew  of  Life  "  in  Jerusalem — on  Mount 
Olivet,  add  the  Targums. 

There  is  no  everlasting  damnation  according  to  the 
Talmud.  There  is  only  a  temporary  punishment  even  for 
the  worst  sinners.  "  Generations  upon  generations "  shall 
last  the  damnation  of  idolaters,  apostates,  and  traitors.  But 
there  is  a  space  of  "  only  two  fingers'  breadth  between  Hell 
and  Heaven  ;"  the  sinner  has  but  to  repent  sincerely  and  the 
gates  to  everlasting  bliss  will  spring  open.  No  human  being 
is  excluded  from  the  world  to  come.  Every  man,  of  what- 
ever creed  or  nation,  provided  he  be  of  the  righteous,  shall 
be  admitted  into  it.  The  punishment  of  the  wicked  is  not 


THE  TALMUD. 


specified,  as  indeed  all  the  descriptions  of  the  next  world  are 
left  vague,  yet,  with  regard  to  Paradise,  the  idea  of  some- 
thing inconceivably  glorious  is  conveyed  at  every  step.  The 
passage,  "  Eye  has  not  seen  nor  has  ear  heard,"  is  applied  to 
its  unspeakable  bliss.  "In  the  next  world  there  will  be 
no  eating,  no  drinking,  no  love  and  no  labour,  no  envy,  no 
hatred,  no  contest.  The  Kighteous  will  sit  with  crowns  on 
their  heads,  glorying  in  the  Splendour  of  God's  Majesty." 

The  essence  of  prophecy  gives  rise  to  some  speculation. 
One  decisive  Talmudical  dictum  is,  that  God  does  not  cause 
his  spirit  to  rest  upon  any  one  but  a  strong,  wise,  rich,  and 
humble  man.  Strong  and  rich  are  in  the  Mishnah  explained 
in  this  wise :  "  Who  is  strong  ?  He  who  subdues  his  passion. 
Who  is  rich  ?  He  who  is  satisfied  with  his  lot."  There  are 
degrees  among  prophets.  Moses  saw  everything  clearly ; 
the  other  prophets  as  in  dark  mirrors.  "  Ezekiel  and  Isaiah 
say  the  same  things,  but  Isaiah  like  a  town-bred  man, 
Ezekiel  like  a  villager."  The  prophet's  word  is  to  be  obeyed 
in  all  things,  save  when  he  commands  the  worship  of  idolatry. 
The  notion  of  either  Elijah  or  Moses  having  in  reality  as- 
cended "  to  Heaven  "  is  utterly  repudiated,  as  well  as  that  of 
the  Deity  (Shechinah)  having  descended  from  Heaven  "more 
than  ten  hands'  breadth." 

The  "  philosophy  of  religion  "  will  be  best  comprehended 
by  some  of  those  "  small  coins,"  the  popular  and  pithy 
sayings,  gnomes,  proverbs,  and  the  rest,  which,  even  better 
than  street  songs,  characterise  a  time.  With  these  we  shall 
conclude.  We  have  thought  it  preferable  to  give  them  at 
random  as  we  found  them,  instead  of  building  up  from  them 
a  system  of  "  Ethics  "  or  "Duties  of  the  Heart."  We  have 
naturally  preferred  the  better  and  more  characteristic  ones 
that  came  in  our  way.  W^e  may  add — a  remark  perhaps  not 
quite  superfluous — that  the  following  specimens,  as  well  as 
the  quotations  which  we  have  given  in  the  course  of  this 
article,  have  been  all  translated  by  us,  as  literally  as  possible, 
from  the  Talmud  itself.1 


1  With  regard  to  the  striking 
parallels  exhibited  by  them  to  some 
of  the  most  sublime  dicta  of  the 


Gospels,  we  disclaim  any  intention  of 
having  purposely  selected  them.  It  is 
iitterly  impossible  to  read  a  page  of 


THE  TALMUD.  55 

w  Be  thou  the  cursed,  not  he  who  curses.   Be  of  them  that  are  persecuted, 
not  of  them  that  persecute.    Look  at  Scripture  :  there  is  not  a  single  bird 
more  persecuted  than  the  dove ;  yet  God  has  chosen  her  to  be  offered  up 
on  his  altar.     The  bull  is  hunted  by  the  lion,  the  sheep  by  the  wolf,  the 
goat  by  the  tiger.     And  God  said,  '  Bring  me  a  sacrifice,  not  from  them 
that  persecute,  but  from  them  that  are  persecuted.' — We  read  (Ex.  xvii.  11) 
that  while,  in  the  contest  with  Amalek,  Moses  lifted  up  his  arms,  Israel 
prevailed.     Did  Moses's  hands  make  war  or  break  war  ?    But  this  is  to 
tell  you  that  as  long  as  Israel  are  looking  upwards  and  humbling  their 
hearts  before  their  Father  which  is  in  Heaven,  they  prevail ;  if  not,  they 
fall.     In  the  same  way  you  find  (Num.  xxi.  9),  'And  Moses  made  a 
serpent  of  brass,  and  put  it  upon  a  pole :  and  it  came  to  pass,  that  if 
a  serpent  had  bitten  any  man,  when  he  beheld  the  serpent  of  brass,  he 
lived.'     Dost  think  that  a  serpent  killeth  or  giveth  life  ?     But  as  long  as 
Israel  are  looking  upwards  to  their  Father  which  is  in  Heaven  they  will 
live ;  if  not,  they  will  die. — '  Has  God  pleasure  in  the  meat  and  blood 
of  sacrifices  ? '  asks  the  prophet.    No ;  He  has  not  so  much  ordained  as 
permitted  them.     It  is  for  yourselves,  he  says,  not  for  me  that  you  offer. 
Like  a  king,  who  sees  his  son  carousing  daily  with  all  manner  of  evil 
companions  :  You  shall  henceforth  eat  and  drink  entirely  at  your  will  at 
my  own  table,  he  says.     They  offered  sacrifices  to  demons  and  devils,  for 
they  loved  sacrificing,  and  could  not  do  without  it.     And  the  Lord  said, 
*  Bring  your  offerings  to  Me;  you  shall  then  at  least  ofifer  to  the  true 
God.' — Scripture  ordains  that  the  Hebrew  slave  who  '  loves '  his  bondage, 
shall  have  his  ear  pierced  against  the  door-post.     Why?  because  it  is 
that  ear  which  heard  on  Sinai,  '  They  are  My  servants,  they  shall  not  be 
sold  as  bondsmen  : ' — They  are  My  servants,  not  servant's  servants.     And 
this  man  voluntarily  throws  away  his  precious  freedom — '  Pierce  his  ear ! ' 
— 'He  who   sacrifices   a  whole  offering,  shall  be  rewarded  for  a  whole 
offering ;  he  who  offers  a  burnt-offering,  shall  have  the  reward  of  a  burnt- 
offering  ;  but  he  who  offers  humility  unto  God  and  man,  shall  be  rewarded 
with  a  reward  as  if  he  had  offered  all  the  sacrifices  in  the  world.' — The 
child  loves  its  mother  more  than  its  father.     It  fears  its  father  more  than 
its  mother.     See  how  the  Scripture  makes  the  father  precede  the  mother 
in  the  injunction,  '  Thou  shalt  love  thy  father  and  thy  mother ; '  and  the 
mother,  when  it  says,  '  Honour  thy  mother  and  thy  father.' — Bless  God 
for  the  good  as  well  as  the  evil.     When  you  hear  of  a  death  say,  '  Blessed 
is  the  righteous  Judge.' — Even  when  the  gates  of  heaven  are  shut  to 
prayer,  they  are  open  to  those  of  tears. — Prayer  is  Israel's  only  weapon,  a 
weapon  inherited  from  its  fathers,  a  weapon  tried  in  a  thousand  battles. — 
When  the  righteous  dies,  it  is  the  earth  that  loses.   The  lost  jewel  will  always 


the  Talmud  and  of  the  New  Testa-  I  redacted  at  a  later  period.  To  assume 


inent  without  coming  upon  innume- 
rable instances  of  this  kind,  as  indeed 
they  constantly  seem  to  supplement 
each  other.  We  need  not  urge  the 
priority  of  the  Talmud  to  the  New 
Testament,  although  the  former  was 


that  the  Talmud  has  borrowed  from 
the  New  Testament  would  be  like 
assuming  that  Sanskrit  sprang  from 
Latin,  or  that  French  was  developed 
from  the  Norman  words  found  in 
English. 


56  THE  TALMUD. 

be  a  jewel,  but  the  possessor  who  has  lost  it — well  may  he  weep. — Life  is- 
a  passing  shadow,  says  the  Scripture.  Is  it  the  shadow  of  a  tower,  of  a 
tree?  A  shadow  that  prevails  for  a  while?  No,  it  is  the  shadow  of  a  bird 
in  his  flight — away  flies  the  bird  and  there  is  neither  bird  nor  shadow. — 
Kepent  one  day  before  thy  death.  There  was  a  king  who  bade  all  his 
servants  to  a  great  repast,  but  did  not  indicate  the  hour  :  some  went  home 
and  put  on  their  best  garments  and  stood  at  the  door  of  the  palace ;  others 
said,  There  is  ample  time,  the  king  will  let  us  know  beforehand.  But  the 
king  summoned  them  of  a  sudden  ;  and  those  that  came  in  their  best 
garments  were  well  received,  but  the  foolish  ones,  who  came  in  their 
slovenliness,  were  turned  away  in  disgrace.  Repent  to-day,  lest  to-morrow 
ye  might  be  summoned. — The  aim  and  end  of  all  wisdom  are  repentance 
and  good  works. — Even  the  most  righteous  shall  not  attain  to  so  high  a 
place  in  Heaven  as  the  truly  repentant. — The  reward  of  good  works  is  like- 
dates :  sweet  and  ripening  late. — The  dying  benediction  of  a  sage  to  his 
disciples  was :  I  pray  for  you  that  the  fear  of  Heaven  may  be  as  strong 
upon  you  as  the  fear  of  man.  You  avoid  sin  before  the  face  of  the  latter  : 
avoid  it  before  the  face  of  the  All-seeing. — *  If  your  God  hates  idolatry,, 
why  does  he  not  destroy  it  ? '  a  heathen  asked.  And  they  answered  him  : 
Behold,  they  worship  the  sun,  the  moon,  the  stars ;  would  you  have  him 
destroy  this  beautiful  world  for  the  sake  of  the  foolish  ? — If  your  God  is  a 
'  friend  of  the  poor,'  asked  another,  why  does  he  not  support  them  ?  Their 
case,  a  sage  answered,  is  left  in  our  hands,  that  we  may  thereby  acquire 
merits  and  forgiveness  of  sin.  But  what  a  merit  it  is !  the  other  replied  •. 
suppose  I  am  angry  with  one  of  my  slaves,  and  forbid  him  food  and  drink,, 
and  some  one  goes  and  gives  it  him  furtively,  shall  I  be  much  pleased  ? 
Not  so,  the  other  replied.  Suppose  you  are  wroth  with  your  only  son  and 
imprison  him  without  food,  and  some  good  man  has  pity  on  the  child,, 
and  saves  him  from  the  pangs  of  hunger,  would  you  be  so  very  angry 
with  the  man  ?  And  we,  if  we  are  called  servants  of  God,  are  also  called 
his  children. — He  who  has  more  learning  than  good  works  is  like  a  treo 
with  many  branches  but  few  roots,  which  the  first  wind  throws  on  its 
face  ;  whilst  he  whose  works  are  greater  than  his  knowledge  is  like  a  treo 
with  many  roots  and  fewer  branches,  but  which  all  the  winds  of  heaven 
cannot  uproot. 

"  Love  your  wife  like  yourself,  honour  her  more  than  yourself.  Who- 
soever lives  unmarried,  lives  without  joy,  without  comfort,  without 
blessing.  Descend  a  step  in  choosing  a  wife.  If  thy  wife  is  small,  bend 
down  to  her  and  whisper  into  her  ear.  He  who  forsakes  the  love  of  his 
youth,  God's  altar  weeps  for  him.  He  who  sees  his  wife  die  before  him 
has,  as  it  were,  been  present  at  the  destruction  of  the  sanctuary  itself — 
around  him  the  world  grows  dark.  It  is  woman  alone  through  whom 
God's  blessings  are  vouchsafed  to  a  house.  She  teaches  the  children, 
speeds  the  husband  to  the  place  of  worship  and  instruction,  welcomes  him 
when  he  returns,  keeps  the  house  godly  and  pure,  and  God's  blessings  rest 
upon  all  these  things.  He  who  marries  for  money,  his  children  shall  be 
a  curse  to  him. — The  house  that  does  not  open  to  the  poor  shall  open  to 
the  physician.  The  birds  in  the  air  even  despise  the  miser.  He  who  gives> 


THE  TALMUD.  57 

charity  in  secret  is  greater  than  Moses  himself.  Honour  the  sons  of  the 
poor,  it  is  they  who  bring  science  into  splendour. — Let  the  honour  of  thy 
neighbour  be  to  thee  like  thine  own.  Rather  be  thrown  into  a  fiery 
furnace  than  bring  any  one  to  public  shame. — Hospitality  is  the  most 
important  part  of  Divine  worship.  There  are  three  crowns  :  of  the  law, 
the  priesthood,  the  kingship ;  but  the  crown  of  a  good  name  is  greater 
than  them  all. — Iron  breaks  the  stone,  fire  melts  iron,  water  extinguishes 
fire,  the  clouds  drink  up  the  water,  a  storm  drives  away  the  clouds,  man 
withstands  the  storm,  fear  unmans  man,  wine  dispels  fear,  sleep  drives 
away  wine,  and  death  sweeps  all  away — even  sleep.  But  Solomon  the 
Wise  says  :  Charity  saves  from  Death. — How  can  you  escape  sin  ?  Think 
of  three  things  :  whence  thou  comest,  whither  thou  goest,  and  to  whom 
thou  wilt  have  to  account  for  all  thy  deeds :  even  to  the  King  of  Kings, 
the  All  Holy,  praised  be  He. — Four  shall  not  enter  Paradise  :  the  scoffer,, 
the  liar,  the  hypocrite,  and  the  slanderer.  To  slander  is  to  murder. — The 
cock  and  the  owl  both  await  the  daylight.  The  light,  says  the  cock, 
brings  delight  to  me,  but  what  are  you  waiting  for? — When  the  thief 
has  no  oppportunity  for  stealing,  he  considers  himself  an  honest  man. — 
If  thy  friends  agree  in  calling  thee  an  ass,  go  and  get  a  halter  around 
thee. — Thy  friend  has  a  friend,  and  thy  friend's  friend  has  a  friend  r 
be  discreet. — The  dog  sticks  to  you  on  account  of  the  crumbs  in  you? 
pocket. — He  in  whose  family  there  has  been  one  hanged  should  not  say  to 
his  neighbour,  Pray  hang  this  little  fish  up  for  me. — The  camel  wanted 
to  have  horns,  and  they  took  away  his  ears. — The  soldiers  fight,  and  the 
kings  are  the  heroes. — The  thief  invokes  God  while  he  breaks  into  the 
house. — The  woman  of  sixty  will  run  after  music  like  one  of  six. — After 
the  thief  runs  the  theft ;  after  the  beggar,  poverty. — While  thy  foot  is 
shod,  smash  the  thorn. — When  the  ox  is  down,  many  are  the  butchers. — 
Descend  a  step  in  choosing  a  wife,  mount  a  step  in  choosing  a  friend. — If 
there  is  anything  bad  about  you,  say  it  yourself. — Luck  makes  rich,  luck 
makes  wise. — Beat  the  gods,  and  the  priests  will  tremble.  Were  it  noli 
for  the  existence  of  passions,  no  one  would  build  a  house,  marry  a  wife, 
beget  children,  or  do  any  work. — The  sun  will  go  down  all  by  himself, 
without  your  assistance. — The  world  could  not  well  get  on  without 
perfumers  and  without  tanners:  but  woe  unto  the  tanner,  well  to  the 
perfumer ! — Fools  are  no  proof. — No  man  is  to  be  made  responsible  foE 
words  which  he  utters  in  his  grief. — One  eats,  another  says  grace. — He 
who  is  ashamed  will  not  easily  commit  sin.  There  is  a  great  difference 
between  him  who  is  ashamed  before  his  own  self  and  him  who  is  only- 
ashamed  before  others.  It  is  a  good  sign  in  man  to  be  capable  of  being 
ashamed.  One  contrition  in  man's  heart  is  better  than  many  flagellations. — 
If  our  ancestors  were  like  angels,  we  are  like  men ;  if  our  ancestors  were 
like  men,  we  are  like  asses. — Do  not  live  near  a  pious  fool. — If  you  wish 
to  hang  yourself,  choose  a  big  tree. — Rather  eat  onions  and  sit  in  the 
shadow,  and  do  not  eat  geese  and  poultry  if  it  makes  thy  heart  uneasy 
within  thee. — A  small  stater  (coin)  in  a  large  jar  makes  a  big  noise.  A 
myrtle,  even  in  a  desert,  remains  a  myrtle. — When  the  pitcher  falls  upon, 
the  stone,  woe  unto  the  pitcher;  when  the  stone  falls  upon  the  pitcher, 


58  THE  TALMUD. 

woe  unto  the  pitcher :  whatever  befalls,  woe  unto  the  pitcher. — Even  if 
the  bull  have  his  head  deep  in  his  trough,  hasten  upon  the  roof,  and  drag 
the  ladder  after  you. — Get  your  living  by  skinning  carcases  in  the  street, 
if  you  cannot  otherwise,  and  do  not  say,  I  am  a  priest,  I  am  a  great  man  ; 
this  work  would  not  befit  my  dignity. — Youth  is  a  garland  of  roses,  age  is 
a  crown  of  thorns. — Use  a  noble  vase  even  for  one  day — let  it  break  to- 
morrow.— The  last  thief  is  hanged  first. — Teach  thy  tongue  to  say,  I  do 
not  know. — The  heart  of  our  first  ancestors  was  as  large  as  the  largest  gate 
-of  the  Temple,  that  of  the  later  ones  like  that  of  the  next  large  one  ;  ours 
is  like  the  eye  of  a  needle.— Drink  not,  and  you  will  not  sin.— Not  what 
you  say  about  yourself,  but  what  others  say. — Not  the  place  honours  the 
man,  but  the  man  the  place. — The  cat  and  the  rat  make  peace  over  a 
carcase. — A  dog  away  from  his  native  kennel  dares  not  bark  for  seven 
years. — He  who  walks  daily  over  his  estates  finds  a  little  coin  each  time. 
— He  who  humiliates  himself  will  be  lifted  up ;  he  who  raises  himself  up 
will  be  humiliated.  Whosoever  runs  after  greatness,  greatness  runs  away 
from  him ;  he  who  runs  from  greatness,  greatness  follows  him. — He  who 
curbs  his  wrath,  his  sins  will  be  forgiven. — Whosoever  does  not  persecute 
them  that  persecute  him,  whosoever  takes  an  offence  in  silence,  he  who 
•does  good  because  of  love,  he  who  is  cheerful  under  his  sufferings — they 
are  the  friends  of  God,  and  of  them  the  Scripture  says,  And  they  shall 
shine  forth  as  does  the  sun  at  noonday. — Pride  is  like  idolatry.  Commit 
a  sin  twice,  and  you  will  think  it  perfectly  allowable. — When  the  end  of 
a  man  is  come,  everybody  lords  it  over  him. — While  our  love  was  strong, 
we  lay  on  the  edge  of  a  sword ;  now  it  is  no  longer  strong,  a  sixty-yard- 
wide  bed  is  too  narrow  for  us. — A  Galilean  said :  When  the  shepherd  is 
angry  with  his  flock,  he  appoints  to  it  a  blind  bell-wether. — The  day  is 
short  and  the  work  is  great ;  but  the  labourers  are  idle,  though  the  reward 
be  great,  and  the  master  of  the  work  presses.  It  is  not  incumbent  upon 
thee  to  complete  the  work  :  but  thou  must  not  therefore  cease  from  it.  If 
thou  hast  worked  much,  great  shall  be  thy  reward :  for  the  master  who 
employed  thee  is  faithful  in  his  payment.  But  know  that  the  true  reward 
is  not  of  this  world."  .... 

Solemnly,  as  a  warning  and  as  a  comfort,  this  adage 
strikes  on  our  ear : — "  And  it  is  not  incumbent  upon  thee  to 
complete  the  work."  When  the  Masters  of  the  Law  entered 
and  left  the  academy  they  used  to  offer  up  a  short  but 
fervent  prayer,  in  which  we  would  fain  join  at  this  moment 
— a  prayer  of  thanks  that  they  had  been  able  to  carry  out 
their  task  thus  far  ;  and  a  prayer  further  "  that  no  evil  might 
arise  at  their  hands,  that  they  might  not  have  fallen  into 
error,  that  they  might  not  declare  pure  that  which  was  impure, 
impure  that  which  was  pure,  and  that  their  words  might  be 
pleasing  and  acceptable  to  God  and  to  their  fellow-men." 


(    59    ) 
II. 

ISLAM. 


THE  Sinaitic  Manifestation,  as  recorded  in  the  Pentateuch, 
has  become  the  theme  of  a  thousand  reflections  in  the 
Talmud  and  the  Haggadah  generally.  Yet,  however  varied 
their  nature — metaphysical,  allegorical,  ethical — one  supreme 
thought  runs  through  them  all — the  catholicity  of  Mono- 
theism, its  mission  to  all  mankind.  Addressed,  apparently, 
to  a  small  horde  of  runaway  slaves,  the  "  Law,"  those  funda- 
mental outlines  of  religious  and  social  culture,  revealed  on 
Mount  Sinai — "the  lowliest  of  the  range,  to  indicate  that 
God's  Spirit  rests  on  them  only  that  are  meek  of  heart " — 
was  indeed  intended,  the  Masters  say,  for  all  the  children  of 
men.  "  Why,"  they  ask,  "  was  it  given  in  the  desert  and 
not  in  any  king's  land  ?  " — To  show  that  even  as  the  desert, 
God's  own  highway,  is  free,  wide  open  to  all,  even  so  are  His 
words  a  free  gift  to  all;  like  the  sun,  the  moon,  and  the 
stars.  It  was  not  given  in  the  stillness  and  darkness  of 
night,  but  in  plain  day,  amidst  thunders  and  lightnings.  In- 
deed, it  had  been  offered  to  all  nations  of  the  world  before  it 
came  to  the  "  chosen  one."  But  they,  one  and  all,  had 
pointed  to  some  special  national  bent  or  "  mission "  with 
which  one  or  the  other  of  these  commandments  would  have 
interfered,  and  so  they  declined  them  all.  And  intensely 
characteristic  are  some  of  the  ethnological  pleas  put  into 
their  mouths  by  the,  at  times,  humorous  Haggadah.  As 
for  those  trembling  waifs  and  strays  who,  worn  out  with 


1  This  article  appeared  in  the 
« Quarterly  Keview'  for  October.  1 869, 
vol.  cxxvii.,  No.  254,  p.  293,  and  re- 
viewed the  following  works  : — 1.  '  The 
Koran.'  2.  '  The  Talmud.'  3.  '  The 
Sunnah.'  4.  'The  Midrash.'  5. 


'Mohammad.'  By  Sprenger.  Alla- 
habad, 1851.  8vo.  Berlin,  3  vols., 
1861-65.  8vo.  6.  '  Life  of  Mahomet.' 
By  William  Muir.  4  vols.  London, 
1858-61.  8vo. 


60  ISLAM. 

"  anguish  of  spirit  and  cruel  bondage,"  a  short  while  since 
would  not  even  listen  to  the  message  of  Liberty,  and  who- 
now,  scared  with  terrors  and  wonders,  cried  "  We  will  obey 
and  bear ! " — obey,  as  the  old  commentators  keenly  point 
out,  unconditionally,  whatever  we  may  hear — to  them  no 
choice  had  been  left.  Had  they  not  accepted  the  "  Law,'* 
that  self-same  mountain  would  have  covered  them  up,  and 
that  desert  would  have  become  their  grave : — a  dictum  sig- 
nificantly echoed  by  the  Koran. 

But — the  Legend  continues — when  this  Law  came  to  be 
revealed  to  them  in  the  fulness  of  time,  it  was  not  revealed 
in  their  tongue  alone,  but  in  seventy  :  as  many  as  there  were 
nations  counted  on  earth — even  as  many  fiery  tongues  leap 
forth  from  the  iron  upon  the  anvil.  .  .  .  And  as  the  voice 
went  and  came,  echoing  from  Orient  to  Occident,  from  heaven, 
to  earth,  all  Creation  lay  hushed  in  awful  silence.  No  bird 
sang  in  the  air,  the  winds  were  still,  the  Seraphim  paused  in 
their  three  times  "  Holy ! "  "  And  all  men,''  says  Scripture, 
"  heard  and  saw."  They  "  heard  "  the  voice — and  to  each  it 
bore  a  different  sound:  to  the  men  and  the  women,  the 
young  and  the  old,  the  strong  and  the  weak.  It  appeared 
unto  them  like  the  voice  of  their  fathers,  their  mothers,  their 
children,  all  those  whom  they  loved  with  their  holiest  and 
tenderest  love.  And  they  "saw."  In  that  self-same  hour 
God's  Majesty  revealed  Itself  in  its  manifold  moods  and  as- 
pects :  as  Mercy  and  as  Severity,  as  Justice  and  as  Forgive- 
ness, as  Grace  and  Peace  and  Eedemption.  And  through 
the  midst  of  all  these  ever-varying  sounds  and  visions  there 
rolled  forth  the  Divine  word,  "  I  am  the  everlasting,  Jehovah* 
thy  God,  One  God !".... 

In  these  and  similar  strains  the  wide  and  all-embracing 
nature  of  the  Monotheistic  creed  and  call  is  set  forth  in  those 
ancient  documents  to  which  we  again  venture  to  draw  the 
attention  of  our  readers,  and  from  a  new  point  of  view.  If, 
on  a  former  occasion,  we  endeavoured  to  sketch  out  of  them- 
selves their  own  aim  and  purport,  their  poetry  and  their 
prose,  their  law  and  their  legend,  we  shall  now  endeavour  to 
show  how  they  may  be,  and  must  be,  utilised  for  the  investi- 


ISLAM.  61 

gation  of  phases  of  creed  and  thought  apparently  wide  apart 
in  time  and  tendency  and  place ;  how  far  they  form  one  of 
the  most  important  sources — the  most  important  one,  perhaps 
— of  Islam, 

We  are  not  about  to  enter  here  into  any  "  Origines  Islam- 
ismi."  This  lies,  at  present,  beyond  our  task.  But  those 
who  would  adequately  work  out  the  whole  problem  of  the 
Talmud — as  far  as  it  lies  within  individual  range — must 
needs  look  somewhat  deeply  into  the  story  of  these  phases. 
And  with  regard  to  Islam,  it  seems  as  if  the  knowledge  of 
its  beginning  and  progress,  its  tenets  and  its  lore,  were  not 
quite  as  familiar  as  they  might  be  to  the  world  at  large, 
notably  England,  which  "  holds  the  gorgeous  East  in  fee." 

But  before  we  proceed  with  our  subject,  which  we  shall 
treat  with  all  the  reverence  and  all  the  freedom  which  belong 
to  Science  in  these  our  days,  let  us  look  back — but  a  few 
centuries — and  see  what,  for  instance,  the  great  theologians 
and  scholars  of  the  time  of  the  Keformation  thought  and  said 
of  Islam  ;  of  its  doctrine  and  the  preacher  thereof. 

Daniel's  "  Little  Horn "  betokens,  according  to  Martin 
Luther,  Mohammed.  But  what  are  the  Little  Horn's  Eyes  ? 
The  Little  Horn's  Eyes,  says  he,  mean  "  Mohammed's  Al- 
koran,  or  Law,  wherewith  he  ruleth.  In  the  which  Law 
there  is  nought  but  sheer  human  reason  (eitel  menschliche 
Vernunft}"  ..."  For  his  Law,"  he  reiterates,  "  teaches 
nothing  but  that  which  human  understanding  and  reason 
may  well  like."  .  .  .  Wherefore — "Christ  will  come  upon 
him  with  fire  and  brimstone."  When  he  wrote  this — in  his 
"  army  sermon  "  against  the  Turks — in  1529,  he  had  never 
seen  a  Koran.  "  Brother  Eichard's  "  (Predigerordens)  "  Con- 
futatio  Alcoran,"  dated  1300,  formed  the  exclusive  basis  of 
his  argument.  But  in  Lent  of  1540,  he  relates,  a  Latin 
translation,  though  a  very  unsatisfactory  one,  fell  into  his 
hands,  and  once  more  he  returned  to  Brother  Kichard  and 
did  his  Eefutation  into  German,  supplementing  his  version 
with  brief  but  racy  notes.  This  Brother  Eichard  had,  ac- 
cording to  his  own  account,  gone  in  quest  of  knowledge  to 
"  Babylon,  that  beautiful  city  of  the  Sarassins,"  and  at  Baby- 


62  ISLAM. 

Ion  he  had  learnt  Arabic  and  been  inured  in  the  evil  ways  of 
the  Sarassins.  When  he  had  safely  returned  to  his  native 
land,  he  set  about  combating  the  same.  And  this  is  his  ex- 
ordium :  — "  At  the  time  of  the  Emperor  Heraclius  there 
arose  a  man,  yea,  a  Devil,  and  a  firstborn  child  of  Satan  .  .  . 
who  wallowed  in  ...  and  he  was  dealing  in  the  Black  Art, 
and  his  name  it  was  Machuinet."  .  .  .  This  work  Luther 
made  known  to  his  countrymen,  by  translating  and  com- 
menting, prefacing  and  rounding  it  off  by  an  epilogue.  True 
his  notes  amount  to  little  more  but  an  occasional  "  Oh  fie, 
for  shame,  you  horrid  Devil,  you  damned  Mahomet!"  or, 
"  Oh  Satan,  Satan,  you  shall  pay  for  that !  "  or,  "  That's  it, 
Devils,  Sarassins,  Turks,  it's  all  the  same  !  "  or,  "  Here  the 
Devil  smells  a  rat,"  or,  briefly,  "  0  pfui  Dich,  Teufel !  "— 
except  when  he  modestly,  with  a  query,  suggests  whether 
those  Assassins,  who,  according  to  his  text,  are  regularly 
educated  to  go  out  into  the  world  in  order  to  kill  and  slay 
all  Worldly  Powers,  may  not,  perchance,  be  the  Gypsies  or 
the  "  Tattern  "  (Tartars) ;  or  when  he  breaks  down  with  a 
"  Hie  nescio  quid  dicat  translator."  His  epilogue,  however, 
is  devoted  to  a  special  disquisition  as  to  whether  Mohammed 
or  the  Pope  be  worse.  And  in  the  twenty-second  chapter  of 
this  disquisition  he  has  arrived  at  the  final  conclusion  that, 
after  all,  the  Pope  is  worse,  and  that  he  and  not  Mohammed 
is  the  real  "  Endechrist,"  "  Wohlan"  he  winds  up,  "  God 
grant  us  His  grace,  and  punish  both  the  Pope  and  Moham- 
med, together  with  their  Devils.  I  have  done  my  part  as  a 
true  prophet  and  teacher.  Those  who  won't  listen  may  leave 
it  alone."  .  .  . 

In  similar  strains  speaks  the  learned  and  gentle  Melanch- 
thon.  In  an  introductory  epistle  to  a  reprint  of  that  same 
Latin  Koran  which  displeased  Luther  so  much,  he  finds  fault 
with  Mohammed,  or  rather,  to  use  his  own  words,  he  thinks 
that  "  Mohammed  is  inspired  by  Satan,"  because  he  "  does 
not  explain  what  sin  is,"  and  further,  since  he  "  showeth  not 
the  reason  of  human  misery."  He  agrees  with  Luther  about 
the  Little  Horn: — though  in  another  treatise  he  is  rather 
inclined  to  see  in  Mohammed  both  Gog  and  Magog.  And 


ISLAM.  63 

"  Mohammed's  sect,"  he  says,  "  is  altogether  made  up  (con- 
flata)  of  blasphemy,  robbery,  and  shameful  lusts."  Nor  does 
it  matter  in  the  least  what  the  Koran  is  all  about.  "  Even 
if  there  were  anything  less  scurrilous  in  the  book,  it  need 
not  concern  us  any  more  than  the  portents  of  the  Egyptians, 
who  invoked  snakes  and  cats.  .  .  .  Were  it  not  that  partly 
this  Mohammedan  pest  and  partly  the  Pope's  idolatry  have 
long  been  leading  us  straight  to  wreck  and  ruin — may  God 
have  Mercy  upon  some  of  us !  "  .  .  . 

Thereupon  Genebrard,  on  the  Papal  side,  charged  the  Ger- 
man Keformers,  chiefly  Luther,  with  endeavouring  to  intro- 
duce Mohammedanism  into  the  Christian  world,  and  to  take 
over  the  whole  clergy  to  that  faith.  Maracci  is  of  opinion 
that  Mohammedanism  and  Lutheranism  are  not  very  dis- 
similar— witness  the  iconoclastic  tendencies  of  both  !  More 
systematically  does  Martinus  Alphonsus  Vivaldus  marshal 
up  exactly  thirteen  points  to  prove  that  there  is  not  a  shadow 
of  difference  between  the  two.  Mohammed  points  to  that 
which  is  written  down — so  do  these  heretics.  He  has  altered 
the  time  of  the  fast — they  abhor  all  fasts.  He  has  changed 
Sunday  into  Friday — they  observe  no  feast  at  all.  He  re- 
jects the  worship  of  the  Saints — so  do  these  Lutherans. 
Mohammed  has  no  baptism — nor  does  Calvin  consider  such 
requisite.  They  both  allow  divorce — and  so  forth.  Where- 
upon Reland — only  150  years  ago — turns  round,  not  without 
a  smile  on  his  eloquent  lips,  and  wants  to  know  how  about 
the  prayers  for  the  dead,  which  both  Mohammed  and  the 
Pope  enjoin,  the  intercession  of  angels,  likewise  the  visiting 
of  the  graves,  the  pilgrimages  to  the  Holy  Places,  the  fixed 
fasts,  the  merit  of  works,  and  the  rest  of  it. 

If  there  be  any  true  gauge  of  an  age  or  a  nation,  it  is  the 
manner  in  which  such  age  or  nation  deals  with  religious 
phases  beyond  the  pale.  We  shall  not  follow  here  the  vicis- 
situdes of  that  discussion  of  which  we  have  indicated  a  few 
traits,  nor  the  gradual  change  which  came  over  European 
opinion  with  regard  to  Islam  and  its  founder.  How  the  silly 
curses  of  the  Prideaux,  and  Spanheims,  and  D'Herbelots; 
how  their  "wicked  impostors,"  and  "dastardly  liars"  and 


ISLAM. 


•"  devils  incarnate,"  and  Behemoths  and  beasts  and  Korahs 
and  six  hundred  and  sixty-sixes,  gave  room,  step  by  step 
almost,  to  more  temperate  protests,  more  civil  names,  less 
outrageous  misrepresentations  of  both  the  faith  and  the  man : 
until  Goethe  and  Carlyle,  on  the  one  hand,  and  that  modern 
phalanx  of  investigators,  the  Sprenger,  and  Amari,  and 
Noldeke,  and  Muir,  and  Dozy,  on  the  other,  have  taught  the 
world  at  large  that  Mohammedanism  is  a  thing  of  vitality, 
fraught  with  a  thousand  fruitful  germs ;  and  that  Moham- 
med, whatever  view  of  his  character  (to  use  that  vague  word 
for  once)  be  held,  has  earned  a  place  in  the  golden  book  of 
Humanity. 

There  is,  however,  another  view  which,  though  more  slowly, 
yet  as  surely,  is  gaining  ground  in  the  consciousness,  if  not  of 
the  world  at  large,  yet  of  those  who  have  looked  somewhat 
more  closely  into  this  matter.  It  is  this,  that  Mohammed- 
anism owes  more  to  Judaism  than  either  to  Heathenism  or 
to  Christianity.  We  would  go  a  step  further.  It  is  not 
merely  parallelisms,  reminiscences,  allusions,  technical  terms, 
and  the  like,  of  Judaism,  its  lore  and  dogma  and  ceremony, 
its  Halacha  and  its  Haggadah  (words  which  we  have  explained 
at  large  elsewhere,1  and  which  may  most  briefly  be  rendered 
by  "  Law  "  and  "  Legend  "),  which  we  find  in  the  Koran ; 2 
but  we  think  Islam  neither  more  nor  less  than  Judaism  as 
adapted  to  Arabia — plus  the  apostleship  of  Jesus  and  Mo- 
hammed. Nay,  we  verily  believe  that  a  great  deal  of  such 
Christianity  as  has  found  its  way  into  the  Koran,  has  found 
it  through  Jewish  channels. 

We  shall  speak  of  these  things  in  due  season.  Meantime, 
we  would  turn  for  a  moment  to  certain  medieval  Jewish 
opinions  both  on  Christianity  and  Islam,  which  will  probably 
astonish  our  readers.  They  belong  to  very  high  authorities 
of  the  Judaao- Arabic  Dispersion  in  Spain : — Maimuni,  gene- 
rally called  Maimonides,  and  Jehuda  Al-Hassan  ben  Halevi. 


1  See  page  17. 

2  Several  of  these  have  been  pointed 
out  from  Maracci,  Reland,  Mill,  Sale, 


to  Geiger  (1833) — the  facile  princeps 
on  this  field — Muir,  Noldeke,  Rod- 
well,  &c. 


ISLAM.  65 

The  former,  at  the  close  of  his  great  "  Digest  of  the  Jewish 
Law,"  fearlessly  speaks  of  Christ  and  Mohammed  as  heralds 
of  the  final  Messianic  times.  In  filling  the  world  with  the 
message  of  the  Messiah,  with  the  words  of  Scripture  and  its 
precepts,  they  have,  he  says,  caused  these  exalted  notions 
and  sacred  words  to  spread  to  the  furthest  ends  of  the  earth. 
The  latter — sweet  singer,  as  well  as  great  philosopher — wrote 
a  book,  in  Arabic,  called  "  Kusari,"  wherein  a  Jew,  a  Christian, 
and  a  Mohammedan,  are  made  to  defend  and  to  explain  their 
respective  creeds  before  the  King  of  the  Chazars — the  king 
of  the  country  now  called  the  Crimea — who,  in  the  tenth 
century  of  our  era,  had,  together  with  his  whole  people,  em- 
braced Judaism.  The  Jewish  speaker  compares  the  religion 
founded  by  Moses  to  a  seed-corn,  which,  apparently  dissolved 
into  its  elements,  is  lost  to  sight;  while  in  reality  it  assimi- 
lates the  elements  around  and  throws  off  its  own  husk.  And 
in  the  glorious  end,  both  it  and  the  things  around  will  grow 
up  together  even  as  one  tree,  whose  fruit  is  the  Messianic 
time.  The  concise  description  of  Islam  which  the  author 
puts  into  the  mouth  of  the  Mohammedan  interlocutor  is  so 
fair  and  correct  that  it  might  stand  at  the  beginning  of  a 
religious  Mohammedan  compendium. 

But  in  this  they  were  but  the  exponents  of  the  real  feeling 
of  the  Synagogue  from  the  earliest  times,  011  this  matter. 
For,  startling  as  it  may  seem,  what  we  are  wont  to  consider 
the  emphatically  modern  idea  of  the  "  three  Semitic  creeds  " 
—being  by  their  fundamental  unity  on  the  one  hand,  and 
their  varying  supplementary  dogmas  on  the  other,  apparently 
intended  to  bring  all  humanity  within  the  pale  of  Mono- 
theism— is  found  foreshadowed  in  those  Talmudical  oracles. 
They  who  composed  them  were  truly  called  the  Wise,  the 
Disciples  of  the  Wise.  They  did  not  prophesy ;  they  would 
have  shrunk  with  horror  from  a  like  notion;  but  with  a 
heart  full  of  poetry  they  often  combined  marvellous  keen- 
ness of  philosophical  insight.  And  thus  while  they  develop 
vthe  minutest  legal  points  with  an  incisive  logical  sharpness, 
while  they  keep  our  imagination  spell-bound  by  their  gor- 
geous lore,  they  at  times  amaze  us  with  views  apparently 


66  ISLAM. 

wide  apart  from  their  subject;  but  views  so  large,  so  en- 
lightened, so  "advanced,"  that  we  have  to  read  again 
and  again  to  believe : — even  as  the  age  of  the  Eenaissance- 
was  amazed  and  startled  when  the  long-buried  song  and 
wisdom  of  the  Antique  were  made  to  open  their  divine  lips 
anew. 

Parallel  with  those  transparent  allegories  of  all  mankind 
being  addressed  on  Sinai ;  or  those  others  of  "  God's  name 
being  inscribed  in  seventy  languages  on  Moses'  wonder- 
staff;  "  or  of  "Joshua  engraving  the  Law  in  seventy  stones 
on  the  other  side  of  the  Jordan  ;  "  there  runs  the  clear  and 
distinct  idea  of  certain  apostolic  Monotheistic  nations  or 
phases.  They  are  three  in  number.  These  three  are  our 
three  "  Semitic  creeds." 

We  shall,  out  of  the  many  Variants  that  in  more  or  less 
poetical  guise  embody  this  thought,  echoed  and  re-echoed  by 
the  highest  authorities  of  the  Synagogue,  and  as  often  used 
and  mis-used  in  fierce  mediaeval  Judreo-Mohammedan  contro- 
versy, select  what  we  consider  the  very  oldest.  It  is  found 
in  the  Si/re,  a  work,  although  of  somewhat  later  redaction, 
anterior  to  the  Mishnah,  and  often  quoted  in  the  Talmud  as 
one  of  its  own  oldest  sources. 

A  homiletic  exposition  of  Numbers  and  Deuteronomy,  it 
lovingly  tarries  at  the  last  chapter — Moses'  parting  blessing. 
The  Tanchuma  introduces  this  chapter  by  the  striking  re- 
mark that  while  through  all  other  blessings  recorded  in  the 
Pentateuch — of  Noah,  of  Abraham,  of  Isaac,  of  Jacob — there 
always  rings  some  discord,  some  one  harsh  note,  whereby  the 
bliss  foretold  is  concentrated  upon  some  special  heads  to  the 
exclusion  of  others,  the  dying  song  of  Moses  is  one  unbroken 
strain  of  harmony.  Its  golden  blessings  flow  for  all  alike, 
and  there  is  none  to  stand  aside,  weeping.  And  the  Sifre, 
in  a  kind  of  paraphrase  of  the  special  verses  themselves, 
literally  continues  as  follows : — " ( The  Lord  came  from  Sinai' 
that  means : — the  Law  was  given  in  Hebrew ;  ( and  rose  up 
from  Seir  unto  them,'  that  means  it  was  also  given  in  Greek 
(Rumi);  'and  he  shined  forth  from  Mount  Paran,'  that 
means  in  Arabic.'11  ,  .  . 


ISLAM.  67 

There  is  a  fourth  language  added,  " '  He  came  with  the  thou- 
sands of  Saints,'  and  this  means  Aramaic.'  "  Even  granting 
the  typical  nature  of  the  three  geographical  names  alluded 
to — and  it  is  not  to  be  denied  that  Sinai  and  Seir  are  con- 
stantly used  for  Israel  and  Esau-Edom-Kome,  while  Faran 
plainly  stands  for  Arabia,  whether  or  not  it  be  the  name  of  the 
mountains  round  Mecca  as  contended — the  connexion  of  the 
"  thousands  of  Saints  "  with  Aram,  does  not  seem  quite  clear 
at  first  sight — unless  it  mean  Ezra's  puritans.  What,  however, 
is  quite  clear  by  this  time  is  this,  that  "  Aramaic  "  is  typical 
of  Judaism ;  that  Judaism  which  has  supplanted  both  He- 
braism and  Israelitism,  and  which,  having  passed  through  its 
most  vital  reformation  under  Aryan,  notably  Zoroastrian 
auspices,  during  the  Exile,  subsequently  stood  at  the  cradle 
both  of  Christianity  and  Mohammedanism.  Aramaic  repre- 
sents that  phase  during  and  since  the  Babylonish  captivity 
whose  legitimate  and  final  expression  is  the  "  Oral  Law,"  the 
Talmud:  that  Talmud,  which  with  one  hand — like  those 
Puritans — reared  iron  walls  around  the  sacred  precincts  of 
Faith  and  Nationality,  and  with  the  other  laid  out  these 
inmost  precincts  with  flowery  mazes,  of  exotic  colours,  of 
bewildering  fragrance — "  a  sweet-smelling  savour  unto  the 
Lord." 

When  the  Talmud  was  completed  (finally  gathered  in,  we 
mean — not  composed),  the  Koran  was  begun.  Post  hoc — 
propter  hoc.  We  do  not  intend  to  convey  the  notion  as  if 
the  Talmudical  authors  had  foretold  the  Koran.  On  the 
contrary,  had  they  known  its  nature  they  would  scarcely 
have  bestowed  upon  it  the  term  of  "Revelation."  But 
here  is  the  passage:  a  wondrous  sign  of  their  clear  ap- 
preciation of  the  elements  of  culture  represented  by  the 
nations  and  clans  around  them.  Hellas-Kome  and  Arabia 
appeared  to  them  the  fittest  preparatory  mediums  or  pre- 
liminary stages  of  this  great  Sinaitic  mission  of  Faith  and 
Culture. 

Post  hoc — propter  hoc.  The  Hebrew,  the  Greek,  the  Ara- 
maic phases  of  Monotheism,  the  Old  Testament,  the  New 
Testament,  the  Targum,  and  the  Talmud,  were  each  in  their 

F  2 


68 


ISLAM. 


sphere  fulfilling  their  behests.  The  times  were  ripe  for  the 
Arabic  phase.1 

In  the  year  571,  was  born  Mohammed — or  he,  who,  to- 
gether with  his  mission,  appears  with  that  significant  name 
of  the  "  Praised,"  under  which  he  was  supposed  to  have  been 
foretold  in  the  Old  and  New  Testament.2  It  was  but  a  few 
years  after  the  death  of  that  Byzantine  Louis  XIV.,  Justinian, 
who  had  aimed  at  creating  one  State,  one  Law,  one  Church 
throughout  the  world ;  who  had  laid  the  first  interdict  upon 
the  Talmud ;  who  most  significantly  gathered  building  ma- 
terials from  all  the  famous  "  heathen  "  temples — of  Baal  of 
Baalbeck  and  Pallas  of  Athens,  of  "  Isis  and  Osiris  "  of  Helio- 
polis  and  the  Great  Diana  of  Ephesus,  therewith  to  recon- 
struct the  Hagia  Sophia  at  Constantinople — the  same  Hagia 
Sophia  wherein  now  the  grave  and  learned  doctors  cease  not 
to  expound  the  Koran.  In  those  days  Arabia  expected  her 
own  prophet.  The  Jews  in  Arabia  are  said  to  have  watched 
for  his  appearance. 

Few  religions  have  been  founded  in  plain  day  like  Islam, 
which  now  counts  its  believers  by  more  than  a  hundred  mil- 
lions, and  which  enlarges  its  domain  from  day  to  day,  un- 
aided. Most  clearly  and  sharply  does  Mohammed  stand  out 


1  [We  must   protest    against    the 
construction  put  upon  this  passage  by 
some  of  our  contemporaries.       The 
historical  sequence  of  events  is  merely 
described;   it  was  not  our  object  to 
discuss  the  claims  and  authority  of 
Judaism,  Christianity,  and  Islamism ; 
and  it  is  a  complete  misrepresentation 
of  our  words  to  assert  that  we  placed 
the  three  religions    upon  an  equal 
footing. — Note  by  the  Author  to  the 
SECOND  EDITION.] 

2  There  exist  very  grave  doubts  as 
to  whether  this  really  was  the  Pro- 
phet's name.    Originally  called  Ko- 
than,  he  is  held  to  have  first  adopted 
the  epithet  of  Mohammed,  either  to- 
gether with  his  mission  or,  perhaps, 
not  even  before  the  Flight.     It  is  not 
easy  to  fix  upon  the  exact  passages, 
either  in  the  Old  or  New  Testament, 
to  which  the  Prophet  himself  alludes, 
as  foretelling  him  by  name:  as  Mo- 


bamrned  in  the  Old,  and  as  Ahmad, 
another  form  of  the  same  name,  in  the 
New.  Regarding  the  latter,  probably 
John's  Paraclete  (amended  by  some 
into  irepiK\vT6s),  which  in  Arabic 
might  be  Ahmad,  is  meant.  As  to 
the  Old  Testament,  the  Vulgate— 
that  most  faithful  receptacle  of  Jew- 
ish tradition,  as  transmitted  to  Jerome 
by  his  Rabbis — will  best  help  us. 
There  is  no  doubt  that,  with  that  root 
hamad  there  is  generally  mixed  up 
some  kind  of  Messianic  notion  in  the 
eyes  of  Targumists  and  Haggadists. 
And  when  in  Haggai  ii.  8,  we  find  the 
word  "Herndah"  =  a  precious  thing, 
rendered,  against  grammar  and  con- 
text, by  "  Desideratus — omnium  gen- 
tium,'" we  may  be  sure  that  the  Syna- 
gogue did  look  upon  this  passage  as 
Messianic,  though  there  be  no  very 
direct  evidence  extant. 


ISLAM.  69 

against  the  horizon  of  history.  Those  who  knew  him,  not  for 
hours,  or  days,  or  weeks,  but  from  birth  to  death,  almost 
during  his  whole  life,  count  not  by  units,  or  dozens,  but  by 
thousands  upon  thousands,  whose  names  and  whose  biogra- 
phies have  been  collected;  and  his  witnesses  were  men  in 
the  fulness  and  ripeness  of  age  and  wisdom,  some  his  bitterest 
enemies.  No  religious  code  extant  bears  so  emphatically  and 
clearly  the  marks  and  traces  of  one  mind,  from  beginning  to 
end,  as  the  Koran,  though,  as  to  materials  and  contents,  there 
is,  as  we  have  hinted  already,  a  passing  strange  tale  to  tell. 
It  will  therefore  behove  us,  in  order  that  we  may  better  un- 
derstand how  Mohammed  made  these  materials  entirely  his 
own,  how  he  moulded  and  shaped,  and  added  unto  them,  to 
try  and  realise  first  the  man  himself  and  the  vicissitudes  that 
influenced  his  mind — its  workings  and  its  strugglings,  its 
despairs  and  its  triumphs. 

This  shall  be  done  very  briefly^.  And,  though  it  seems 
next  to  impossible  to  separate  the  man  from  his  book,  we 
shall  yet  attempt  to  separate  them.  True,  the  more  than 
twenty  years  which  its  composition  occupied,  are  embalmed  in 
it  with  all  their  strange  changes  of  fortune,  with  their  terrors 
and  visions,  their  curses  and  their  prayers,  their  bulletins 
and  their  field-orders.  The  Koran  does  indeed  illustrate  and 
explain  its  author's  life  so  well  that  hitherto  every  biographer 
(and  there  have  been  many  and  great  ones)  has  suggested,  in 
accordance  with  his  own  views,  a  different  arrangement  of 
that  book.  In  its  present  shape  a  sheer  chaos  as  regards 
chronological  or  logical  order  of  chapters  and  even  verses, 
it  will  lend  itself  admirably  to  all  and  any  arrangement. 
You  may  work  it,  as  it  were,  backwards  and  forwards.  Some- 
thing is  supposed  to  have  happened  at  a  certain  time  :  here 
is  a  verse  looking  like  a  vague  allusion  to  it :  therefore  the 
verse  belongs  to  that  period,  and  confirms  the  previously 
doubtful  fact.  Here  is  a  verse  which  alludes  to  some  event 
or  other  of  which  nothing  is  known,  and  the  event  is  solemnly 
registered,  a  fitting  date  is  given  to  it,  and  the  verse  finds  its 
chronological  place.  But  we  have  nothing  to  arrange,  and 
therefore,  though  it  be  less  easy  and  less  picturesque  to 


70  ISLAM. 

consider  the  author  and  the  book  as  independently  as  may 
be,  we  do  so  at  Mohammed's  express  desire  as  it  were,  and 
in  bare  justice  to  him.  He  wishes  the  Koran  to  be  judged 
by  its  own  contents.  "  Hie  Ehodus,  hie  salta,"  he  seems  to 
cry.  The  Book  is  his  sign,  his  miracle,  his  mission.  His 
own  story  is  another  matter.  And  without  preconceived 
opinions — either  as  panegyrist  or  as  Advocatus  Diaboli — 
shall  we  try  to  tell  it  and  then  be  unfettered  in  our  story 
of  the  Book.  If  we  make  use  of  the  "Sunnah"  for  our 
purpose  no  one  will  blame  us.  This  Midrash  of  Moham- 
medanism, as  we  should  call  those  traditional  records  of  the 
Prophet's  doings  and  sayings,  both  in  the  legendary  and 
juridical  sense  of  the  word,  has,  albeit  in  exalted  tones  and 
colours  often,  told  us  much  of  his  outer  and  inner  life.  Used 
with  the  same  patient  care  with  which  all  documents  are 
used  by  the  impartial  historian,  it  yields  precious  infor- 
mation. 

We  have  reason  to  discard  much  of  what  has  long  been 
repeated  about  Mohammed's  early  life.  All  we  know,  or  think 
we  know  now  for  certain,  is  that  he  lost  his  father  before  his 
birth,  and  his  mother  when  he  was  six  years  of  age.  His 
grandfather  who  had  adopted  him  died  two  years  later,  and 
his  poor  uncle  Abu  Talib  then  took  charge  of  him.  Though 
belonging  to  a  good  enough  family,  the  Koreish,  though 
sickly,  subject  to  epilepsy,  Mohammed  had  early  to  work  for 
his  living.  He  tended  the  flocks — even  as  Moses,  David, 
and  all  prophets  had  done,  he  used  to  say.  "  Pick  me  out 
the  blackest  of  these  berries,"  he  cried  once  at  Medina,  when 
prophet  and  king,  he  saw  some  people  pass  with  berries  of 
the  wild  shrub  Arak.  "  Pick  me  out  the  blackest,  for  they 
are  sweet — even  such  was  I  wont  to  gather  when  I  tended  the 
flocks  of  Mecca  at  Ajyad."  But  by  the  Meccans  tending  of 
flocks  was  considered  a  very  low  occupation  indeed.  In  his 
twenty-fourth  year,  a  rich  widow  of  Mecca,  Chadija,  about 
thirty-eight  years  of  age,  and  twice  before  married,  engaged 
his  services.  He  accompanied  her  caravans  on  several 
journeys,  probably  as  a  camel-driver.  Of  a  sudden  she 
offered  him  her  hand,  and  obtained  the  consent  of  her  father 


ISLAM.  71 

by  intoxicating  him.  She  bore  Mohammed  two  sons,  one  of 
whom  he  called  after  a  popular  idol,  and  four  daughters. 
Both  boys  died  early. 

This  is  the  whole  story  of  Mohammed's  outer  life  previous 
to  the  assumption  of  his  mission.  The  ever-repeated  tale  of 
his  having  accidentally  been  chosen,  in  his  thirty-fifth  year, 
as  arbiter  in  a  quarrel  about  the  replacing  of  the  Black  Stone 
in  the  Kaaba,  is  at  least  very  questionable,  as  are  his  repeated 
travels  in  Syria  with  his  uncles,  to  which  we  shall  return 
anent  a  certain  monk  who  appears  in  many  aliases,  and  who 
proves  to  be  more  or  less  a  myth. 

Mohammed's  personal  appearance,  a  matter  of  some  im- 
port, chiefly  in  a  prophet,  is  almost  feature  by  feature  thus 
portrayed  by  the  best  authenticated  traditionists : — 

He  was  of  middle  height,  rather  thin,  but  broad  of 
shoulders,  wide  of  chest,  strong  of  bone  and  muscle.  His 
head  was  massive,  strongly  developed.  Dark  hair — slightly 
curled — flowed  in  a  dense  mass  down  almost  to  his  shoulders. 
Even  in  advanced  age  it  was  sprinkled  by  only  about  twenty 
grey  hairs — produced  by  the  agonies  of  his  "Revelations." 
His  face  was  oval-shaped,  slightly  tawny  of  colour.  Fine, 
long,  arched  eyebrows  were  divided  by  a  vein  which  throbbed 
visibly  in  moments  of  passion.  Great  black  restless  eyes 
shone  out  from  under  long  heavy  eyelashes.  His  nose  was 
large,  slightly  aquiline.  His  teeth,  upon  which  he  bestowed 
great  care,  were  well  set,  dazzling  white.  A  full  beard 
framed  his  manly  face.  His  skin  was  clear  and  soft,  his 
complexion  "  red  and  white,"  his  hands  were  as  "  silk  and 
satin  " — even  as  those  of  a  woman.  His  step  was  quick  and 
elastic,  yet  firm,  and  as  that  of  one  "  who  steps  from  a  high 
to  a  low  place."  In  turning  his  face  he  would  also  turn  his 
full  body.  His  whole  gait  and  presence  were  dignified  and 
imposing.  His  countenance  was  mild  and  pensive.  His 
laugh  was  rarely  more  than  a  smile.  "  Oh,  my  little  son !  " 
reads  one  tradition,  "  hadst  thou  seen  him  thou  wouldest 
have  said  thou  hadst  seen  a  sun  rising."  "I,"  says  another 
witness,  "saw  him  in  a  moonlight  night,  and  sometimes  I 
looked  at  his  beauty  aod  sometimes  I  looked  at  the  moon, 


72  ISLAM. 

and  his  dress  was  striped  with,  red,  and  lie  was  brighter  and 
more  beautiful  to  me  than  the  moon." 

In  his  habits  he  was  extremely  simple,  though  he  bestowed 
great  care  on  his  person.  His  eating  and  drinking,  his  dress 
and  his  furniture,  retained,  even  when  he  had  reached  the 
fulness  of  power,  their  almost  primitive  nature.  He  made  a 
point  of  giving  away  all "  superfluities."  The  only  luxuries  he 
indulged  in  were,  besides  arms,  which  he  highly  prized, 
certain  yellow  boots,  a  present  from  the  Negus  of  Abyssinia. 
Perfumes,  however,  he  loved  passionately,  being  most  sensi- 
tive of  smell.  Strong  drinks  he  abhorred. 

His  constitution  was  extremely  delicate.  He  was  nervously 
afraid  of  bodily  pain,  he  would  sob  and  roar  under  it. 
Eminently  unpractical  in  all  common  things  of  life,  he  was 
gifted  with  mighty  powers  of  imagination,  elevation  of  mind, 
delicacy  and  refinement  of  feeling.  "  He  is  more  modest 
than  a  virgin  behind  her  curtain,"  it  was  said  of  him.  He 
was  most  indulgent  to  his  inferiors,  and  would  never  allow 
his  awkward  little  page  to  be  scolded,  whatever  he  did.  "  Ten 
years,"  said  Anas,  his  servant,  "  was  I  about  the  prophet,  and 
he  never  said  as  much  as  "uff  "  to  me."  He  was  very  affection- 
ate towards  his  family.  One  of  his  boys  died  on  his  breast,  in 
the  smoky  house  of  the  nurse,  a  blacksmith's  wife.  He  was 
very  fond  of  children.  He  would  stop  them  in  the  streets 
and  pat  their  little  cheeks.  He  never  struck  any  one  in  his 
life.  The  worst  expression  he  ever  made  use  of  in  conver- 
sation was,  '•'  What  has  come  to  him  ? — may  his  forehead  be- 
darkened  with  mud ! "  When  asked  to  curse  some  one,  he 
replied,  "I  have  not  been  sent  to  curse,  but  to  be  a  mercy  to 
mankind."  "  He  visited  the  sick,  followed  any  bier  he  met, 
accepted  the  invitation  of  a  slave  to  dinner,  mended  his  own 
clothes,  milked  his  goats,  and  waited  upon  himself,5'  relates 
summarily  another  tradition.  He  never  first  withdrew  his 
hand  out  of  another  man's  palm,  and  turned  not  before  the 
other  had  turned.  His  hand,  we  read  elsewhere  —  and 
traditions  like  these  give  a  good  index  of  what  the  Arabs 
expected  their  prophet  to  be — was  the  most  generous,  his 
breast  the  most  courageous,  his  tongue  the  most  truthful ;  he 


ISLAM.  73 

was  the  most  faithful  protector  of  those  he  protected,  the 
sweetest  and  most  agreeable  in  conversation ;  those  who  saw 
him  were  suddenly  filled  with  reverence,  those  who  came 
near  him  loved  him,  they  who  described  him  would  say,  "  I 
have  never  seen  his  like  either  before  or  after."  He  was  of 
great  taciturnity,  but  when  he  spoke  it  was  with  emphasis 
and  deliberation,  and  no  one  could  ever  forget  what  he  said. 
He  was,  however,  very  nervous  and  restless  withal,  often  low- 
spirited,  downcast  as  to  heart  and  eyes.  Yet  he  would  at 
times  suddenly  break  through  those  broodings,  become  gay, 
talkative,  jocular,  chiefly  among  his  own.  He  would  then 
delight  in  telling  amusing  little  stories,  fairy  tales,  and  the 
like.  He  would  romp  with  the  children  and  play  with  their 
toys — as,  after  his  first  wife's  death,  he  was  wont  to  play  with 
the  dolls  his  new  baby-wife  had  brought  into  his  house. 

The  common  cares  of  life  had  been  taken  from  him  by  the 
motherly  hand  of  Chadija :  but  heavier  cares  seemed  now  to 
darken  his  soul,  to  weigh  down  his  whole  being.  As  time 
wore  on,  the  gloom  and  misery  of  his  heart  became  more  and 
more  terrible.  He  neglected  his  household  matters,  and  fled 
all  men.  "  Solitude  became  a  passion  to  him,"  the  traditions 
record.  He  had  now  passed  the  meridian  of  his  life.  No 
one  seemed  to  heed  the  brooder,  no  one  stretched  out  the 
hand  of  sympathy  to  him.  He  had  nothing  in  common  with 
the  rest,  and  he  was  left  to  himself. 

Much  chronological  discussion  has  arisen  as  to  the  date  of 
the  event  of  which  we  are  going  to  speak.  So  much,  how- 
ever, seems  certain,  that  Mohammed  was  at  least  forty  years 
of  age  when  he  went,  according  to  the  custom  of  some  of  his 
countrymen,  to  spend  the  Rajab,  the  month  of  universal 
armistice  among  the  ancient  Arabs,  on  Mount  Hira,  an  hour's 
walk  from  Mecca.  This  mountain,  now  called  Mount  of 
Light,  consists  of  a  huge  barren  rock,  torn  by  cleft  and 
hollow  ravine,  standing  out  solitary  in  the  full  white  glare  of 
the  desert  sun,  shadowless,  flowerless,  without  well  or  rill. 
On  this  rock,  in  a  small  dark  cave,  Mohammed  lived,  alone, 
and  spent  his  days  and  his  nights,  according  to  unanimous 
tradition,  in  "  Tahannoth" 


74  ISLAM. 

The  weary  guesses  that  have  been  made  from  the  days  of 
these  very  traditions  to  our  own,  as  to  the  meaning  and 
derivation  of  this  word,  cannot  be  told.  It  has  been  put 
on  the  rack  by  lexicographers,  grammarians,  commentators, 
translators,  investigators,  of  all  hues  and  ages,  and,  we  are 
sorry  to  add,  with  no  satisfactory  result.  To  the  general 
meaning  the  context  gave  some  cue,  but  the  etymology  of 
the  word,  and  its  technical  signification,  have  remained  a 
mystery,  notwithstanding  many  various  readings  of  its  single 
letters  suggested  by  sheer  despair.  One  of  the  latest,  and 
greatest,  investigators,  Sprenger,  numbers  it  as  of  one  the 
most  " indigestible  morsels"  among  the  many  strange  and 
obsolete  words  that  occur  in  connexion  with  Mohammed  and 
the  Koran. 

We  do  not  intend  to  do  more  than  throw  out  suggestions 
— though  very  carefully  weighed — for  we  must,  to  our  re- 
gret, leave  all  our  philological  scaffoldings  behind.  Kegard- 
ing  this  most  mysterious  word,  we  have  a  notion  that  it 
might  be  explained,  like  scores  of  other  tough  morsels  in  the 
Koran,  by  the  Jewish,  Hebrew,  or  Aramaic  parlance  of  the 
period,  as  it  is  preserved  most  fortunately  in  the  Talmud, 
the  Targum,  the  Midrash.  The  word  Tahannoth  need  not 
be  emendated  into  Tahannof,  or  any  other  weird  form,  to 
.agree  with  its  traditional  meaning,  because  we  think  that  it 
is  only  the  Hebrew  word  Tehinnoth,  which  occurs  bodily  in 
the  Bible,  and  means  "  Prayers,  Supplications."  The  change 
of  vowels  is  exactly  the  same  as  that  from  the  Hebrew  Gehin- 
nom  (New  Test.  Gehenna)  to  the  Koranic  Jahannam.  Among 
the  Jews  the  word  became  technical  for  a  certain  class  of 
-devotional  prayers,  customary,  together  with  fastings,  through- 
out the  month  preceding  the  New  Year's  Day.  It  is  known 
more  generally  as  a  term  for  private  devotions  throughout  the 
year,  chiefly  for  pious  women. — This,  however,  only  by  the 
way. 

To  devotions  and  asceticism,  then,  Mohammed  gave  him- 
self up  in  his  wild  solitude.  And  after  a  time  there  came  to 
him  dreams  "  resplendent  like  the  rosy  dawn."  When  he 
left  his  cave  to  walk  about  on  his  rocky  fastness,  the  wild 


ISLAM.  75 

herbs  that  grew  in  the  clefts  would  bend  their  heads,  and  the 
stones  scattered  in  his  way  would  cry,  "  Salam !  Hail,  O 
Prophet  of  God."  And  horrified,  not  daring  to  look  about 
him,  he  fled  back  into  his  cave.  That  same  cave  has  now 
become  a  station  for  the  Holy  Pilgrimage,  and  on  it  that 
early  predecessor  of  our  Burckhardts  and  Burtons,  "  Hajj 
Joseph  Pitts  of  Exon,"  the  runaway  sailor  boy,  delivered 
himself  of  the  judgment  that  "he  had  been  in  the  cave, 
and  observed  that  it  was  not  at  all  beautified,  at  which  he 
admired." 

Suddenly,  in  the  middle  of  the  night — the  "  blessed  night 
Al  Kadar,"  as  the  Koran  has  it — "  and  who  will  make  thee 
understand  what  the  night  Al  Kadar  is  ?  That  night  Al 
Kadar,  which  is  better  than  a  thousand  months  ....  which 
bringeth  peace  and  blessings  till  the  rosy  dawn" — in  the 
middle  of  that  night,  Mohammed  woke  from  his  sleep,  and 
he  heard  a  voice.  Twice  it  called,  urging,  and  twice  he 
struggled  and  waived  its  call.  But  he  was  pressed  sore,  "  as 
if  a  fearful  weight  had  been  laid  upon  him."  He  thought 
his  last  hour  had  come.  And  for  the  third  time  the  voice 
called : — 

«CRY!" 

And  he  said,  "  What  shall  I  cry  ?  " 

Came  the  answer :  "  CRY — in  the  name  of  thy  Lord ! "  .  .  . 

And  these,  according  to  wellnigh  unanimous  tradition,  fol- 
lowed by  nearly  every  ancient  and  modern  authority,  are  the 
first  words  of  the  Koran.  Our  readers  will  find  them  in  the 
ninety-sixth  chapter  of  that  Book,  to  which  they  have  been 
banished  by  the  Kedactors. 

We  hasten  to  add  that  when  we  said  that  the  above  sen- 
tence would  be  found  in  the  ninety-sixth  chapter  of  the 
Koran,  we  were  not  quite  accurate.  The  word  which  we 
have  ventured  to  translate  Cry  they  will  find  rendered  in  as 
many  different  ways  as  there  were  translators,  investigators, 
commentators,  old  and  new.  They  will  find  Kecite,  Preach, 
Kead,  Proclaim,  Call  out,  Kead  the  Scriptures — namely  of 
the  Jews  and  Christians — and  a  weary  variety  of  other 
meanings  which  certainly  belong  to  the  word,  though  the 


76  ISLAM. 

greater  part  of  them  is  of  obviously  later  date  and  utterly 
out  of  the  question  in  this  case. 

Our  reasons  for  deviating  from  these  time-honoured  ver- 
sions were  of  various  kinds.  In  the  first  place,  the  Arabic 
root  in  question  is  identical  with  our  own,  and  in  this  primi- 
tive root  lie  hidden  all  other  significations.  "  Cry  "  is  one 
of  those  very  few  onomatopoetic  words  still  common  to  both 
Semitic  and  Indo-European.  Its  significations  are  indeed 
manifold ;  from  the  vague  sound  given  forth  by  bird  or  tree, 
as  in  Sanskrit,  to  our  English  usage  of  silent  weeping ;  from 
the  Hebrew  "  deep  crying  unto  deep "  to  the  technical 
Aramaic  "  reading  the  Scriptures  " — in  contradistinction  to 
"  reading  the  Mishnah  " — from  the  weird  German  Schrei  to 
the  Greek  herald's  solemn  proclamation — it  is  always  the 
same  fundamental  root :  biliteral  or  triliteral. 

Secondly,  because  the  principal  words  of  this  tradition  are 
startlingly  identical — another  fact  not  hitherto  noticed,  as  far 
as  we  are  aware — with  a  certain  passage  in  Isaiah :  "  The 
Voice  said  Cry,  and  I  said,  What  shall  I  cry  ?  " — a  passage 
in  which  no  one  has  yet  translated  the  leading  verb  by 
Recite,  Eead,  Head  the  Scriptures,  though  there  was  never  a 
doubt  as  to  whether  Isaiah  knew  the  Scriptures  and  could 
read,  while  Mohammed  distinctly  denied  being  a  "  Scholar." 

And,  thirdly,  because  from  this  root  is  also  derived  the 
word  Koran.  Derived  :  for  it  was  in  the  very  special  Jewish 
sense  of  Mikra,  Scripture,  that  Mohammed  gave  that  name 
to  every  single  fragment  of  that  book,  until  it  became,  even 
as  the  word  Mishnah,  its  collective  and  general  name. 

We  now  resume  our  recital  of  that  first  revelation  and  its 
immediate  consequences,  as  tradition  has  preserved  it.  It 
is  of  moment. 

When  the  voice  had  ceased  to  speak,  telling  how  from 
minutest  beginnings  man  had  been  called  into  existence  and 
lifted  up  by  understanding  and  knowledge  of  the  Lord,  who 
is  most  beneficent,  and  who  fy  the  pen  had  revealed  that 
which  men  did  not  know,  Mohammed  woke  from  his  trance 
and  felt  as  if  "  a  book  "  had  been  written  in  his  heart.  A 
great  trembling  came  upon  him  so  that  his  whole  body 


ISLAM.  77 

shook,  and  the  perspiration  ran  down  his  body.  He  hastened 
home  to  his  wife  and  said,  "  Oh,  Chadija !  what  has  happened 
to  me ! "  He  lay  down,  and  she  watched  by  him.  When  he 
recovered  from  his  paroxysm  he  said,  "  Oh,  Chadija !  he,  of 
whom  one  would  not  have  believed  it  (meaning  himself), 
has  become  either  a  soothsayer  (Kahin1)  or  one  possessed 
(by  Djins) — mad."  She  replied,  "  God  is  my  protection,  O 
Abu-'l-Kasim !  (a  name  of  Mohammed  derived  from  one  of 
his  boys),  He  will  surely  not  let  such  a  thing  happen  unto 
thee,  for  thou  speakest  the  truth,  dost  not  return  evil  for 
evil,  keepest  faith,  art  of  a  good  life,  and  kind  to  thy  rela- 
tions and  friends.  And  neither  art  thou  a  talker  abroad 
in  the  bazaars.  What  has  befallen  thee?  Hast  thou  seen 
aught  terrible  ?  "  Mohammed  replied,  "  Yes."  And  he  told 
her  what  he  had  seen.  Whereupon  she  answered  and  said, 
"Kejoice,  0  dear  husband,  and  be  of  good  cheer.  He,  in 
whose  hands  stands  Chadija's  life,  is  my  witness  that  thou 
wilt  be  the  prophet  of  this  people."  Then  she  arose  and 
went  to  her  cousin  Waraka,  who  was  old  and  blind,  and 
"knew  the  Scriptures  of  the  Jews  and  Christians."  When 
she  told  him  what  she  had  heard,  he  cried  out,  "  Koddus, 
Koddus! — Holy,  Holy!  Verily  this  is  the  Namus  which 
came  to  Moses.  He  will  be  the  prophet  of  his  people.  Tell 
him  this.  Bid  him  be  of  brave  heart." 

We  must  here  interpose  for  a  moment.  This  Waraka  has 
given  rise  to  much  and  angry  discussion — chiefly  as  to  his 
"  conversion."  He  was  long  supposed  to  have  been  first  an 
idolater,  then  a  Jew,  finally  a  Christian.  It  has  been  shown, 
however,  by  recent  investigations,  that  whatever  he  was  at 
first,  he  certainly  lived  and  died  a  Jew.  To  our  mind  this 
one  sentence  goes  a  long  way  towards  settling  the  point. 
Koddus— is  simply  the  Arabicised  Hebrew  Kadosh  (Holy). 
And  while  we  need  not  prove  that  a  Christian  would  scarcely 
have  used  this  exclamation  (any  more  than  he  would  have 


1  The  Hebrew  "  Cohen,"  priest,  in  |  ready  interpreter  of  dreams,  who  had, 
a  deteriorated  sense  like  the  German  |  like    Daniel,  to    find    out    both  the 
•*'  Pfaffe."     In  the  time  of  Mohammed  j  dreams  and  their  solutions, 
it  meant  a  low  fortune-teller,  an  ever-  [ 


78  ISLAM. 

spoken  of  the  "  Namus "),  we  are  reminded  of  the  story  in 
the  Midrash  of  the  man  whose  heart  was  sore  within  him 
for  that  he  could  neither  read  the  Scripture  nor  the  Mishnah. 
And  one  day  when  he  stood  in  the  synagogue,  and  the  pre- 
centor reached  that  part  of  the  liturgy  in  which  God's  holy 
name  is  sanctified,  this  man  lifted  up  his  voice  aloud  and 
cried  out  with  all  his  main:  "Kadosh!  Kadosh!  Kadosh!" 
(Holy !  Holy !  Holy !).  And  when  they  asked  him  what 
made  him  cry  out  thus,  he  said,  "  I  have  not  been  deemed 
worthy  to  read  the  Scriptures,  or  the  Mishnah,  and  now  the 
moment  has  come  when  I  may  sanctify  God,  shall  I  not 
lift  up  my  voice  aloud  ?  "  "  It  did  not  last  a  year,  or  two, 
or  three,"  the  legend  adds,  "  but  it  so  fell  out  that  this  man 
became  a  great  and  mighty  general,  and  a  founder  of  a 
colony  within  the  Eoman  empire." 

As  to  the  "  Namus"  it  is  a  hermaphrodite  in  words.  It  is 
Arabic,  but  also  Greek.  That  it  is  Talmudical  need  we  say 
it  ?  It  is  in  the  first  instance  vopos,  Law,  that  which  "  by 
custom  and  common  consent "  has  become  so.  In  Talmudical 
phraseology  it  stands  for  the  Thorah  or  Kevealecl  Law.  In 
Arabic  it  further  means  one  who  communicates  a  secret 
message.  And  all  these  different  significations  were  con- 
veyed by  Waraka  to  Mohammed.  The  messenger  and  the 
message,  both  divine,  had  come  together,  even  as  Moses 
had  been  instructed  in  the  Law  by  a  special  angel — not, 
as  former  commentators,  to  save  Waraka's  Christianity,  used 
to  explain,  because  to  Mohammed,  as  to  Moses,  a  new  Law 
was  given,  while  Christ  came  to  confirm  what  had  been 
given  before. 

Not  long  after  this  the  two  men  met  in  the  street  of 
Mecca.  And  Waraka  said,  "  I  swear  by  him  in  whose  hand 
Waraka's  life  is,  God  has  chosen  thee  to  be  the  prophet  of 
this  people.  The  greatest  Namus  has  come  to  thee.  They 
will  call  thee  a  liar ;  they  will  persecute  thee,  they  will 
banish  thee,  they  will  fight  against  thee.  Oh  that  I  could 
live  to  those  days !  I  would  fight  for  thee."  And  he  kissed 
him  on  his  forehead.  The  Prophet  went  home,  and  the  words 


ISLAM.  79' 

lie  had  heard  were  a  great  comfort  to  him  and  diminished 
his  anxiety. 

After  this  Mohammed,  in  awe  and  trembling,  waited  for 
other  visions  and  revelations.  But  none  came ;  and  the  old 
horrible  doubts  and  suspicions  crept  over  his  soul.  He  went 
up  to  Mount  Hira  again — this  time  to  commit  suicide.  But, 
as  often  as  he  approached  the  precipice,  lo,  he  beheld  Gabriel 
at  the  end  of  the  horizon  whithersoever  he  turned,  who 
said  to  him,  "  I  am  Gabriel,  and  thou  art  Mohammed,  the 
Prophet  of  God."  And  he  stood  as  entranced,  unable  to 
move  backwards  or  forwards,  until  anxious  Chadija  sent  out 
men  to  seek  him. 

We  must  interrupt  the  course  of  the  story  for  a  moment 
respecting  this  "  Voice,"  which  is  called  in  the  Koran,  Gabriel, 
or  the  Holy  Ghost.  We  have  on  a  previous  occasion  spoken 
of  the  strange  metamorphoses  of  Angels  and  Demons,  as  they 
migrated  from  India  to  Babylonia,  and  from  Babylonia  to 
Judaea.1  Their  further  migration  to  Mecca  did  not  produce 
much  change,  since  the  process  of  Semitising  them  and  making 
them  subservient  to  Monotheism  had  been  wrought  already 
by  the  Talmud.  Yet  this  strange  identification  of  Gabriel 
with  the  Holy  Ghost  which  we  find  here  is  a  problem  not 
fully  to  be  solved,  either  by  the  Talmud  or  the  Zend  Avesta. 

The  Holy  Ghost,  an  expression  of  most  common  occur- 
rence in  the  Haggadah,  is  thus  summarily  explained  by  the 
Talmud — as  an  emphatic  answer  probably  to  the  popular 
tendency  of  taking  transcendental  terms  in  a  concrete  sense. 
<{  With  ten  names,"  says  the  Talmud,  "  is  the  Holy  Ghost 
named  in  Scripture.  They  are — Parable,  Allegory,  Enigma, 
Speech,  Sentence,  Light,  Command,  Vision,  Prophecy."  In 
the  Angelic  Hierarchy  of  the  Talmud  it  is  Michael  (Vohu- 
mano),  and  not  G-abriel,  who  takes  first  rank.  He  stands 
to  the  right  of  the  Throne,  Gabriel  to  the  left ;  he  represents 
Grace ;  Gabriel,  stern  Justice  :  and  though  they  are  both 
entrusted  with  watching  over  God's  people,  it  is  yet  Michael 


See  page  50. 


80  ISLAM. 

who  stands  forth  to  fight  for  them,  who  brings  them  good 
tidings,  and  who,  as  heavenly  High  Priest,  "offers  up  the 
souls  of  the  righteous  upon  God's  Altar."  Yet  he  is  often 
.accompanied  by  Gabriel,  who  is,  be  it  observed,  particularly 
active  in  the  life  of  Abraham.  It  is  he  who  saves  Abraham 
from  the  fiery  furnace  into  which  Nimrod  had  cast  him ;  in 
the  message  of  Isaac's  birth  he  is  one  of  the  three  '  men,'  and 
his  place  is  to  Michael's  right  hand.  In  all  other  respects,  he 
is  the  exact  counterpart  of  the  Persian  Craosho,  and  his  prin- 
cipal office  is  that  of  revenging  and  punishing  evil,  while  he 
acts  as  a  merciful  genius  to  the  good  and  elect.  Hence,  pro- 
bably, he  became  in  later  Persian  mythology,  as  well  as  in 
the  Talmud,  the  Divine  Messenger.  He  is  thus  replete  with 
all  knowledge,  and — alone  of  all  angels — is  versed  in  all 
human  tongues.  Islam  has  made  a  few  transparently  "  ten- 
dencious"  changes.  Gabriel  here  stands  to  the  right  hand 
of  the  Throne,  and  Michael  to  the  left,  i.e.  the  former 
becomes  the  Angel  of  Mercy,  and  the  latter  that  of  Punish- 
ment. Omar,  it  is  said,  once  went  into  a  Jewish  Academy 
and  asked  the  Jews  about  Gabriel's  office.  He,  they  mock- 
ingly answered,  is  our  enemy  ;  he  betrays  all  our  secrets  to 
Mohammed,  and  he  and  Michael  are  always  at  war  with 
each  other — an  answer  which,  taken  seriously  by  Omar,  so 
shocked  him  that  he  cried  out,  "  Why,  you  are  more  unbe- 
lieving than  the  Himyarites  !"  But  might  this  strange  identi- 
fication of  Gabriel  and  the  Holy  Ghost  possibly  be  accounted 
for  by  the  fact  that  the  mystic  office  with  regard  to  the 
birth  of  Christ,  ascribed  to  the  Holy  Ghost  by  the  Church, 
is  ascribed  in  Islam  to  Gabriel  also,  who,  as  in  the  New 
Testament,  announces  the  message  to  Mary,  and  that  thus 
the  two  have  become  fully  identified  in  the  minds  of  the 
traditionists  ? 

We  have  left  Mohammed  in  the  terror-stricken  state  of  a 
mind  conscious  of  its  mission,  and  vainly  trying  to  struggle 
.against  it.  The  grim  lonely  darkness  within,  the  horrible 
dread  lest  it  all  be  but  mockery  and  self-deception,  or  "  the 
Devil's  prompting ;  "  the  inability  of  uttering,  save  in  a  few 
wild  rhapsodic  sounds,  that  message  which  is  silently  and 


ISLAM.  81 

agonizingly  growing  into  shape — and  Death  seems  the  only 
refuge  and  salvation — who  shall  describe  it  ?  It  was  through 
these  phases  of  a  soul  struggling  between  Heaven  and  Hell 
that  Mohammed  went  in  those  days,  and  the  thought  of 
suicide  came  temptingly  near.  But,  lo !  Gabriel  on  the  edge 
of  the  horizon  crying :  I  am  Gabriel,  and  thou  art  Moham- 
med, God's  Messenger.  .  .  .  Fear  not ! 

It  is  not  easy  to  say  how  long  that  state  of  doubt  and 
terror  lasted.  Tradition,  wildly  diverging  here,  is,  of  course, 
of  little  use.  Probably  he  was  not  quite  free  from  it  to  the 
day  of  his  death.  But,  by  degrees,  and  as  he  no  longer  had 
to  carry  that  dread  burden  in  his  lonely  heart,  he  gathered 
strength.  His  confidence  in  himself  and  in  his  mission  rose. 
No  Demoniac,  no  contemptible  soothsayer,  no  possessed 
madman  he — the  voice  within  urged.  And  at  times,  a 
blissful  exultation  took  the  place  of  the  former  horror.  His 
heart  throbs  with  grateful  joy.  "  By  the  midday  splendour, 
and  by  the  stilly  night,"  he  cries,  "  the  Lord  does  not  reject 
him,  and  will  not  forsake  him,  and  the  future  shall  be  better 
than  the  past.  Has  he  not  found  him  an  orphan  and  given 
him  a  home,  found  him  astray  and  guided  him  into  the 
straight  path,  found  him  so  poor  and  made  him  so  rich  ? " 
"  Wherefore,"  he  adds,  "  do  not  thou  oppress  the  orphan, 
neither  repel  thou  him  who  asketh  of  thee — but  declare 
aloud  the  bounties  of  thy  Lord !".... 

And  the  revelations  now  came  one  after  the  other  without 
intermission  during  a  space  of  more  than  twenty  years — 
revelations,  the  central  sun  of  which  was  the  doctrine  of 
God's  Unity,  Monotheism,  of  which  he,  Mohammed,  was  the 
bearer  to  his  own  people. 

Yet  these  Eevelations  did  not  come  in  visions  bright,  tran- 
scendent, exalted.  They  came  ghastly,  weird,  most  horrible. 
After  long  solitary  broodings,  a  something  used ,  to  move 
Mohammed,  all  of  a  sudden,  with  frightful  vehemence.  He 
"  roared  like  a  camel,"  his  eyes  rolled  and  glowed  like  red 
coals,  and  on  the  coldest  day  terrible  perspirations  would 
break  out  all  over  his  body.  When  the  terror  ceased,  it 
seemed  to  him  as  if  he  had  heard  bells  ringing,  "  the  sound 

G 


82 


ISLAM. 


whereof  seemed  to  rend  him  to  pieces  " — as  if  he  had  heard 
the  voice  of  a  man — as  if  he  had  seen  Gabriel — or  as  if  words 
had  leen  written  in  his  heart.  Such  was  the  agony  he  en- 
dured, that  some  of  the  verses  revealed  to  him  well-nigh 
made  his  hair  turn  white. 

Mohammed  was  epileptic,  and  vast  ingenuity  and  medical 
knowledge  have  been  lavished  upon  this  point,  as  explana- 
tory of  Mohammed's  mission  and  success.  We,  for  our  own 
part,  do  not  think  that  epilepsy  ever  made  a  man  appear  a 
prophet  to  himself,  or  even  to  the  people  of  the  East ;  or,  for 
the  matter  of  that,  inspired  him  with  the  like  heart-moving 
words  and  glorious  pictures.  Quite  the  contrary.  It  was 
taken  as  a  sign  of  demons  within — demons,  "  Devs,"  devils, 
to  whom  all  manner  of  diseases  were  ascribed  throughout  the 
antique  world,  in  Phoenicia,  in  Greece,  in  Home,  in  Persia, 
and  among  the  lower  classes  of  Judaea  after  the  Babylonian 
Exile.  The  Talmud,  which  denies  a  concrete  Satan,  or 
rather  resolves  him  rationally  into  "passion,"  "remorse," 
and  "  death," — stages  corresponding  to  his  being  "  Seducer," 
"  Accuser,"  and  "  Angel  of  Death  " — speaks  of  these  demons 
as  hobgoblins,  or  special  diseases,  and  inveighs  in  terms  of 
contempt  against  the  "exorcisms"  in  vogue1  in  Judsea  about 
the  period  of  the  birth  of  Christianity.  Those  <;  possessed  " 
loved  solitary  places,  chiefly  cemeteries ;  they  tore  their 
garments,  and  were  altogether  beyond  the  pale.  On  the 
special  nature  of  the  possessing  demons,  the  "Shedim"  of 
the  Talmud,  the  "  Devils  "  of  the  New  Testament,  the  Jin, 
or  Genii,  of  the  Koran,  as  different  from  and  yet  alike  to  the 
Devas,  and  as  forming  the  intermediate  beings  between  men 
and  angels,  as  in  Plato  (Sympos.),  we  may  yet  have  to  speak. 


1  True,  Simon  ben  Yochai,  the 
fabulous  author  of  the  Zohar,  to  whose 
rather  badly  kept  shrine  at  Merom,  a 
few  hours  from  Tiberias  (where  also 
Shammai  and  Hillel  are  believed  to 
be  buried),  the  Faithful  of  Palestine, 
and  even  of  Persia  and  India,  make 
their  annual  pilgrimage  to  this  day, 
did  once,  and  apparently  with  the 
approval  of  the  Authorities,  drive  out 


a  devil  from  the  Emperor's  daughter 
at  Rome.  But  then  this  devil  had 
good-naturedly  offered  his  services 
himself,  and  the  object  of  Simon's  em- 
bassy, the  rescinding  of  an  oppressive 
decree,  was  considered  so  praiseworthy 
in  the  main  that  these  authorities 
rather  shut  their  eyes  to  the  per- 
formance. 


ISLAM.  83 

'That  they  were  all  "  pure,  holy,  everlasting  angels  from  the 
beginning,"  and  only  came  to  be  degraded  (as  were  the  Devas 
by  "  Zoroastrianism,"  and  the  gods  of  Hellas  and  Borne  by 
•Christianity)  into  wicked  angels  in  the  course  of  religious 
reformation  or  change, — is  unquestionable,  even  if  the  Book 
of  Enoch  did  not  state  it  expressly.  They  are  "  fallen 
Angels  " — fallen  through  pride,  envy,  lust.  The  two  angels 
•Shamchazai  (Asai)  and  Azael  (Uziel)  of  the  Targum,  the 
Midrash,  and  the  Koran  (Marut  and  Harut),  are  thrown  from 
heaven  because  of  their  desiring  the  daughters  of  man,  even 
as  Sammael  himself  loses  his  most  high  estate,  because  he 
seduces  Adam  and  Eve.  True,  there  is  a  peculiar  something 
supposed  to  inhere  in  epilepsy.  The  Greeks  called  it  a 
sacred  disease.  Bacchantic  and  chorybantic  furor  were  God- 
inspired  stages.  The  Pythia  uttered  her  oracles  under  the 
most  distressing  signs.  Symptoms  of  convulsion  were  even 
needed  as  a  sign  of  the  divine  mania  or  inspiration.  But 
Mohammed  did  not  utter  any  of  his  sayings  while  the  par- 
oxysm lasted.  Clearly,  distinctly,  most  consciously,  did  he 
dictate  to  his  scribe  what  had  come  to  him — for  he  could 
not  write,  according  to  his  own  account.  But  it  may  well 
be,  and  it  speaks  for  Mohammed's  thorough  honesty,  that 
he  himself  believed,  in  the  very  first  stages,  to  have  been 
"  inspired  "  during  his  fits  by  Jin.  According  to  Zoroastro- 
talmudical  notions,  which  had  penetrated  into  Arabia,  these 
Jin  listened  "  behind  the  curtain  "  of  Heaven  and  learnt  the 
things  of  the  future.  These  they  were  then  believed  to  com- 
municate to  the  soothsayers  and  diviners.  But  it  was  dan* 
gerous  eavesdropping  enough.  When  the  heavenly  watchers 
perceived  these  curious  goblins,  they  hurled  arrows  of  fire  at 
them :  in  which  men  saw  falling  stars.  Mohammed  soon, 
however,  rejected  this  notion  of  "demoniac"  inspiration: 
while  from  the  Byzantines  to  Luther,  and  from  Luther  to 
Muir,  it  was  the  devil,  who  prompted  the  prophet.  Muir 
has  indeed  instituted  several  minute  comparisons  between 
Satan  tempting  Christ  and  Mohammed.  Whereat  Sprenger 
somewhat  irreverently  observes,  that  since  there  be  a  Devil, 
lie  must  needs  have  something  to  do. 

G  2 


84  ISLAM. 

Tempted  as  we  feel,  before  we  proceed  to  describe  the' 
mental  and  religious  atmosphere  around  Mohammed  when 
he  came  to  proclaim  "the  faith  of  Abraham,"  that  first 
bearer  of  the  emphatically  Semitic  mission,  to  enlarge  upon 
that  great  question  of  the  day,  the  mission  of  the  Semitic 
races  in  general,  we  must  confine  ourselves  to  one  or  two 
points  touching  their  religions  development.  A  brilliant 
French  savant  has  of  late,  in  somewhat  rash  generalisation r 
asserted  that  Monotheism  is  a  Semitic  instinct.  On  which 
another,  one  of  the  most  profound  scholars — since,  alas  ! 
dead — observed  that  the  assertion  was  perfectly  correct,  if 
you  exclude  all  the  Semitic  races  save  the  Jews :  and  these, 
it  might  be  added,  at  a  very  late  period  indeed,  notwith- 
standing all  the  teachings  of  Moses  and  the  Prophets,  not 
after  a  thousand  judgments  had  come  upon  them,  all  the 
horrors  of  internecine  war,  misery,  captivity,  and  exile.  The 
Phoenicians  were  idolaters,  the  Assyrians  were  idolaters,  the 
Babylonians  were  idolaters,  and  the  Arabs  were  idolaters. 
And  yet  perhaps  the  truth  lies,  as  usual,  in  the  middle.  If, 
according  to  Schelling,  who  goes  much  further,  a  vague 
Monotheism  is  the  basis  of  all  religions,  there  certainly  does 
seem  to  be  an  abstract  idea  of  absolute  power  of  rule  and 
dominion  hidden  in  the  universal  Semitic  name  of  the  All- 
Powerful  Supreme  God,  to  whom  all  the  other  natural 
Powers,  in  their  personified  mythic  guises,  are  subject,  and 
in  whom  they,  as  it  were,  are  absorbed.  Baal,  El,  Elohimy 
Allah,  Elion,  denote  not  merely  the  Light,  the  bright 
Heaven,  as  Zeus,  Jupiter  (subject  in  his  turn  to  Fate,  or  that 
"  which  had  once  been  spoken  "),  but  Might,  Almightiness — 
absolute,  despotic,  that  created  and  destroyed,  did  and  undid 
according  to  its  own  tremendous  Will  alone,  and  by  the  side- 
of  which  nothing  else  existed :  while  Jehovah- Jahve  seems 
to  point  to  the  other  stage  and  side  of  absolute  Existence, 
the  Being  from  all  times  and  for  all  times,  the  Ens,  the  First 
Cause.  And  what  is  especially  characteristic  of  the  Shernites 
is  this,  that  while,  as  Jewish  and  Arabic  tradition  has  it,  the 
sons  of  Japhet  (Indo-Germans)  are  kings,  and  those  of  Ham 
slaves,  the  sons  of  Shem  are  prophets.  A  thousand  times 


ISLAM.  85 

lulled  into  sweet  dreams  of  beauty,  they  are  aroused  a  thou- 
sand times  by  the  wild  cry  of  the  Prophet  in  their  midst, 
who  points  heavenwards,  "  Behold  who  hath  created  all 
these  !"  But  what  is  a  Prophet  ? — In  the  Hebrew  term, 
Ndbi,  which  Islam  adopted,  there  does  not  indeed  appear  to 
inhere  that  foretelling  faculty,  with  which  from  the  time  of 
the  Septuagint  we  are  wont  to  connect  it.  For  it  is  the 
Septuagint  which  first  translates  it  by  TT/OO^TJTT??,  foreteller; 
while  others  render  it  by  "  Inspired,"  or  simply  "  Orator." 
The  manifold  equivalents  used  in  the  Bible,  such  as  watch- 
man, seer,  shepherd,  messenger,  one  and  all  denote  emphati- 
cally the  office  of  watching  over  the  events,  and  of  lifting 
up  the  voice  of  warning,  of  reproving,  of  encouraging,  before 
all  the  people  at  the  proper  hour.  Hence  the  Haggadah 
has  been  called  "  the  prophetess  of  the  Exile,"  though  no 
Haggadist  wras  ever  considered  "inspired."  The  Prophet 
was  above  all  things  considered  as  the  popular  preacher  and 
teacher,  gifted  with  religious  enthusiasm,  with  an  intense 
love  of  his  people,  and  with  divine  power  of  speech: — 
whence  alone  the  possibility  of  prophetic  schools.  And  most 
strikingly  says  the  Midrash  of  Abraham  that  he  was  a 
Prophet,  a  Nabi,  but  not  an  "  Astrologer,"  one  whose  calling 
it  is  not  to  forecast,  but  one  who  lifts  men's  minds  heaven- 
wards. In  this  sense — all  transcendentalism  apart — Mo- 
hammed might  well  be  called  a  prophet  even  by  Jews  and 
Christians. 

We  can  but  guess  at  the  state  of  Arab  belief  and  worship 
before  Mohammed?  For  though  the  Arabs  enter  the  world's 
stage  as  long  after  the  first  joyous  revelation  of  humanity  in 
Hellenism,  as  the  Assyrians  and  Babylonians,  not  to  speak 
of  the  Phoenicians,  had  entered  it  before,  they  have  left  us 
but  little  record  of  their  doings  in  the  period  of  "  Ignorance  " 
— as  with  proud  humility  they  called  the  time  before  Islam. 
From  what  broken  light  is  shed  by  a  few  forlorn  rays,  we 
may  conclude  this,  that  they  worshipped — to  use  that  vague 
word — the  Hosts  of  Heaven,  and  that  with  this  worship  there 
was  combined  a  partial  belief  in  resurrection  among  some 
clans.  Others,  however,  seem  to  have  ascribed  everything  to 


86  ISLAM. 

"  Nature,"  and  to  have  denied  a  guiding  Creator.  We  further 
find  traces  of  an  adoration  of  fetishes :  bodily  representatives 
of  certain  influences  to  be  avoided,  feared,  and  conciliated,  or 
to  be  loved,  and  gratefully  acknowledged.  The  Sun  and  the 
MOOD,  Jupiter  and  Venus,  Canopus  and  Sirius  and  Mercury, 
had  their  stony  mementos,  their  temples,  their  priests,  and, 
be  it  welJ  understood,  the  power  of  protecting  those  who  fled 
to  their  altars.  Herodotus  speaks  of  the  Arabs  as  wor- 
shipping only  Dionysos  (whom  Strabo  changes  into  Jupiter)' 
and  Urania,  "  whom  they  call "  Orotal  (probably  Nur- Allah 
=  God's  light),  and  Alilat — a  feminine  form  of  Allah,  the- 
Phoenician  Queen  of  Heaven,  Tanith-Astarte.  Of  a  worship 
of  heroes  in  the  form  of  statues  there  are  vague  traces,  but 
so  vague  and  so  mythical  that  they  cannot  be  counted 
historical  material.  Trees  and  stones  are  further  mentioned 
as  objects  of  primitive  Arab  worship,  and  on  this  point  Mai- 
monides  has  given,  as  is  his  wont,  clear  and  transparent 
explanations,  into  which  we  cannot,  however,  enter.  Among 
the  latter  the  famous  Black  Stone  of  the  Kaaba,  that  pri- 
meval temple  ascribed  to  Abraham,  stands  foremost,  next 
we  know  of  a  White  Stone  (Al  Lat),  at  Ta'if,  still  seen  by 
Hamilton,  and  one  or  two  more  immovable  tokens  of  some 
great  event,  such  as  the  Shemites  were  wont  to  erect, — 
Jacob,  among  others,  at  Bethel  (the  general  Phoenician  term 
for  these  stone  erections) — mementos  which  the  Pentateuch 
emphatically  protests  against :  "  For  I  am  Jehovah,  your 
God."  Vaguer  still  are  the  records  of  the  Oracle-Trees,  one 
of  which  stood  near  Mecca,  while  the  other,  dedicated  to 
Uzza,  the  Mighty  Goddess,  the  Queen  of  Heaven,  »eem& 
to  have  spread  all  over  the  land,  with  its  due  complement  of 
priests  and  soothsayers,  male  and  female.  That  there  were- 
the  usual  accompaniment  of  Lares  and  Penates,  more  or  less 
coarse  and  bodily,  such  as  always  have  been  necessary  for 
the  herd,  need  not  be  added.  Thus,  it  is  recorded  of  one- 
tribe  that  they  worshipped  a  piece  of  dough,  which,  com- 
pelled by  hunger,  they  cheerfully  ate  up.  Some,  we  said, 
did  not  believe  in  the  resurrection.  Some  did ;  and  there- 
fore they  tied  a  camel  to  a  man's  sepulchre,  without  pro- 


ISLAM.  87 

viding  it  with  any  food.  If  it  ran  away,  that  man  was  ever- 
lastingly damned — and,  be  it  observed  here,  that  the  Jews 
alone  among  the  Shemites  protested  against  everlasting 
damnation — if  not,  its  blackened  bones  would,  on  the  Day 
of  Judgment,  form  a  handy  and  honourable  conveyance  to 
the  abode  of  his  bliss.  The  Phantoms  of  the  Desert,  the 
Fata  Morgana,  Angels  and  Demons,  and  the  rest  of  embodied 
ideas  or  ideals,  formed  other  objects  of  pious  consideration, 
but  only  as  intermediators  with  the  great  Allah.  Long 
before  Mohammed,  the  people  were  wont,  in  their  distress, 
to  pray  at  their  pilgrimages  to  him  alone,  in  this  wise :  "  At 
thy  service,  0  Allah !  There  is  no  Being  like  unto  Thee, 
and  if  there  be  one,  it  is  Thou  and  not  it  that  reigneth;"  and 
when  asked  what  was  the  office  of  their  idols,  they  would 
answer  that  they  were  intermediators — much  as  Konian 
Catholics  in  the  lower  strata  revere  Saints  and  their  em- 
blems. Let  it  not  be  forgotten  also  that  the  perpetuation  of 
this  pre-Islamic  idolatry,  if  so  we  call  it,  was  due  to  a  great 
extent  to  political  reasons.  The  manifold  Sanctuaries  and 
their  incomes  belonged  to  certain  noble  families  and  clans. 

So  much  for  the  Heathenism.  We  have  now  to  consider 
the  two  other  popularly  assumed  agents  in  that  religious 
phase  to  which  Mohammed  has  given  its  name,  and  which 
has  changed  the  face  of  the  world :  Christianity  and 
Judaism. 

It  has  long  been  the  fashion  to  ascribe  whatever  was 
"good"  in  Mohammedanism,  to  Christianity.  We  fear  this 
theory  is  not  compatible  with  the  results  of  honest  investi- 
gation. For  of  Arabian  Christianity,  at  the  time  of  Mo- 
hammed, the  less  said  perhaps  the  better.  By  the  side  of  it, 
as  seen  in  the  Koran — and  this  book  alone  shows  it  to  us 
authentically  as  Mohammed  saw  it — even  modern  Amharic 
Christianity,  of  which  we  possess  such  astounding  accounts, 
appears  pure  and  exalted.  And  as,  moreover,  the  monk 
Bahira-Sergius-Georgius-Nestor,  who  is  said  to  have  in- 
structed Mohammed,  is  a  very  intangible  personage  indeed, 
if  he  be  not,  as  there  is  reason  to  believe,  actually  a  Jew ; 
and  as  the  several  Syrian  travels  during  which  Mohammed 


88  ISLAM. 

is  supposed  to  have  been  further  inured  into  Christianity, 
have  to  be  taken  cum  grano,  nothing  remains  but  his  contact 
with  a  few  freed  Greek  and  Abyssinian  slaves,  who,  having 
lived  all  their  life  among  Arabians,  could  hardly  boast  of 
a  very  profound  knowledge  of  the  tenets  and  history  of 
Christianity.  We  shall,  therefore,  not  be  surprised  to  see 
the  Koran  polemising  against  some  such  extraordinary 
notions  as  that  of  Mary-Maryam,  "the  daughter  of  Imran, 
the  sister  of  Harun,"  being  not  only  the  mother  of  God,  but 
forming  a  person  in  the  Trinity ;  or,  on  the  other  hand,  to 
meet  with  the  extraordinary  legends  from  the  apocryphal 
Gospel  of  the  Infancy,  and  from  the  "  Assumption  "  of  Mary, 
ascribed  to  John  the  Apostle  himself.  Or,  again,  to  see  it 
adopt  the  heretical  view  of  certain  early  Christian  sects 
that  it  was  not  Christ,  but  Judas,  who  was  executed,  and  that 
Christ  had  to  allow  the  "  hallucination  "  as  a  punishment  for 
having  suffered  people  to  call  him  God.  But  that  funda- 
mental tenet  of  Christianity,  viz.  the  Sonship,  Mohammed 
fought  against  with  unswerving  consistency ;  and  never  grew 
tired  of  repeating,  in  the  most  emphatic  terms  which  he,  the 
master  of  speech,  could  find,  his  abhorrence  against  that 
notion,  at  which  "the  Heavens  might  tear  open,  and  the 
earth  cleave  asunder."  There  is  a  brief  chapter  in  the  Koran, 
the  "  Confession  of  God's  Unity,"  which  is  considered  tanta- 
mount to  the  third  part  of  the  whole  Koran,  though  it  only 
consists  of  these  words — "Say,  God  is  one:  the  Everlasting 
God.  He  ~begettetli  not,  and  He  is  not  begotten,  and  there  is 
none  like  unto  Him."  Still  more  distinctly  is  this  notion 
expressed  in  another  place : — "  The  Christians  say  Christ  is 
the  Son  of  God.  May  God  resist  them  .  .  .  how  are  they 
infatuated  ! "  And,  again  : — "  They  are  certainly  infidels 
who  say  God  is  One  of  Three."  ..."  Believe  in  God  and 
His  Apostle,  but  speak  not  of  a  Trinity.  There  is  but  One 
God.  Far  be  it  from  Him  that  he  should  have  a  son."  .  .  . 
"  Christ  the  Son  of  Mary  is  no  more  than  an  Apostle."  .  .  . 
"  It  is  not  fit  for  Allah  that  He  should  have  a  son.  Praise 
to  him  !  "  (i.e.  far  be  it  from  Him  !) 

Jesus,   according  to   Mohammed,  is  only  one  of  the  six 


ISLAM.  89 

Apostles,  who  are  specially  chosen  out  of  three  hundred  and 
thirteen,  to  proclaim  new  dispensations,  in  confirmation  of 
previous  ones.  These  are  Adam,  Noah,  Abraham,  Moses, 
Jesus,  and  Mohammed. — But  this  point  must  come  under 
further  consideration  under  the  tenets  of  Islam. 

We  now  turn  to  Judaism,  which,  as  we  have  hinted  before, 
forms  the  kernel  of  Mohammedanism,  both  general  and 
special.  Here  merely  the  preliminary  observation  that  when 
we  spoke  of  the  Talmud  as  a  source  of  Islam,  we  did  not 
imply  that  Mohammed  knew  it,  or,  for  the  matter  of  that, 
had  ever  heard  its  very  name  ;  but  it  seems  as  if  he  had 
breathed  from  his  childhood  almost  the  air  of  contemporary 
Judaism,  such  Judaism  as  is  found  by  us  crystallised  in  the 
Talmud,  the  Targum,  the  Midrash. 

Indeed,  the  geographical  and  ethnographical  notices  of 
Arabia  in  Scripture  are  to  so  astounding  a  degree  in  accord- 
ance with  the  very  latest  researches,  that  we  cannot  but 
assume  the  connection  between  Palestine  and  Arabia  to  have 
been  close  from  the  earliest  periods.  The  Ishrnaelites  of  the 
Arabian  midland  are,  in  the  earliest  documents,  carefully 
distinguished  from  the  Yoctanites  and  Kushites  of  Mahrah  in 
the  south :  not  to  speak  of  the  minute  information  revealed 
by  the  later  documents.  At  what  time  Jews  first  went  to 
Arabia  is  a  problem  which  we  shall  not  endeavour  to  settle. 
Of  Abraham  and  Ishmael,  and  the  halo  of  legends  that 
surrounds  these  national  heroes,  hereafter.  But  even  reject- 
ing, as  we  must  do,  the  hallucinations  of  two  most  eminent 
scholars  regarding  the  immigration  of  an  entire  Simeonitic 
regiment  in  the  time  of  Saul,  who  having  fought  a  battle 
near  Mecca — hence  called  Makkah  Kabbah  (Great  Defeat) — 
settled  as  Gorhoms  or  Gerim  (Strangers),  and  so  forth — we 
cannot  shut  our  eyes  to  the  fact  that  Jews,  "  worshippers  of 
the  invisible  God  of  Abraham,"  existed,  though  in  small 
numbers,  in  Arabia,  at  a  very  primitive  period  indeed. 
Bokht-Nasar,  as  Nebuchadnezzar  is  called  in  early  Arabic 
documents,  caused  many  others  to  seek  refuge  in  Arabia. 
The  Hasmoneans  forced  a  whole  tribe  of  Northern  Arabia 
to  adopt  Judaism ;  a  Jewish  king  of  Arabs  fights  against 


90 


ISLAM. 


Pompey.  The  Talmud  shows  a  rather  unexpected  familiarity 
with  Arab  manners  and  customs,  and  —  to  indicate  one 
curious  point — the  prophet  Elijah,  who  appears  there  as  a 
kind  of  immortal  tutelary  genius — gees  about  in  the  guise  of 
an  Arab  (the  Khidhr  of  Mohammedan  legend).  The  angels 
that  appear  to  Abraham  "  look  like  Arabs  " — not  to  speak  of 
Job  and  his  three  friends,  the  Queen  of  Sheba,  and  other 
like  Arab  reminiscences.  Centuries  before  Mohammed, 
Kheibar,  five  days  from  Medina,  and  Yemen,  in  South 
Arabia,  were  in  the  hands  of  the  Jews.  Dim  No  was,  the 
last  Jewish  king  of  Yemen,  falls  by  the  hands  of  the  Abys- 
sinian Negus.  The  question  for  us  remains,  what  phase  of 
faith  these  Jews  represented. 

It  has  been  supposed  that,  though  combined  among  them- 
selves for  purposes  of  war,  they  held  little  intercommuni- 
cation with  their  brethren  either  in  Palestine  or  even  in 
Arabia,  and  therefore  were  ignorant  of  the  development  of 
"  The  Law  "  that  went  rolling  on  in  Judaea  and  Babylonia. 
The  chief  proof  for  this  was  found  in  the  absence  of  Judaeo- 
Arabic  literature  before  Mohammed.  To  us,  this  circum- 
stance affords  absolutely  no  proof.  None,  at  least,  that 
would  not  perhaps  rather  confirm  our  view  to  the  exact 
contrary.  We  know  how  literatures  may  be  and  have  been 
stamped  out;  or  had  the  Phoenicians,  the  Chaldaaans,  the 
Etruscans,  never  any  literature  ?  We  happen  to  know  the 
contrary,  though  nothing,  not  to  say  worse  than  nothing, 
because  more  or  less  corrupt  reminiscences,  has  remained  of 
it  all.  And,  further,  we  have  distinct  proof  in  the  very 
Koran  that  not  only  did  they  keep  au  courant  with  regard 
to  Haggadah — witness  all  the  legends  of  Islam — but  even 
Halachah.  Mohammed  literally  quotes  a  passage  from  the 
Mishnah,1  and,  further,  gives  special  injunctions  taken  from 
the  Genaara,  such  as  the  purification  with  sand  in  default  of 
water,  the  shortening  of  the  prayer  in  the  moment  of  danger, 


1  Notably  the  judge's  admonition 
to  the  witnesses,  that  he  who  wan- 
tonly destroys  one  single  human  life 


will  be  considered  as 
had  destroyed  a  whole  worl 


as  if  he 


ISLAM.  91 

&C.1  There  is  an  academy,  or  Bethhamidrash,  at  Medina ; 
and  Alriba,  when  on  his  revolutionary  mission,  is  consulted 
by  the  Arab  Jews  about  one  of  the  most  minute  and  intricate 
points  of  the  Oral  Law. 

In  truth,  these  Jews  stood  not  merely  on  the  heights  of 
contemporary  culture,  but  far  above  their  Arab  brethren. 
They  represented,  in  fact,  the  Culture  of  Arabia.  They 
could  all  read  and  write,  whilst  the  Arabs  had  occasionally 
to  capture  some  foreign  scholars  and  promise  them  their 
liberty  on  condition  that  they  should  teach  their  boys  the 
elements  of  reading  and  writing.  The  Jews — nay,  the 
Jewesses,  as  Mohammed  had  to  learn  to  his  grief — were 
specially  gifted  with  the  poetic  vein,  as  we  shall  see  further 
on ;  and  poetry  in  Arabia  was  at  the  time  of  Mohammed  the 
one  great  accomplishment.  There  was  a  certain  fair  held 
annually,  where,  as  at  the  Olympic  Games,  the  productions 
of  the  last  twelve  months  were  read  and  received  prizes. 
The  beautiful  tale  of  the  hanging  up  of  the  prize  poems  in 
the  Kaaba,  whence  they  were  called  Moallakat,  is  unfor- 
tunately a  myth,  since  Moallakat  does  not  betoken  sus- 
pended ones,  but  (pearls)  loosely  strung  together.  But,  un- 
doubtedly, to  have  made  the  best  poem  of  the  season  was 
a  great  distinction,  not  merely  for  the  individual  poet,  but 
for  his  entire  clan. 

These  Jewish  tribes,  some  of  whom  derived  their  genealogy 
from  priestly  families  (Al-Kahinani),  lived  scattered  all  over 
Arabia,  but  chiefly  in  the  south,  in  Yeman  (Himyar),  "  the- 
dust  of  which  was  like  unto  gold,  and  where  men  never 
died."  They  lived,  as  did  the  other  Arabs,  either  the  life  of 
roving  Bedouins,  or  cultivated  the  land,  or  inhabited  cities,, 
such  as  Yathrib,  the  later  Medina  or  City,  by  way  of  emi- 
nence— of  the  Prophet,  to  wit.  Outwardly  they  had  com- 
pletely merged  in  the  great  Arabic  family.  Conversions  of 
entire  clans  to  Judaism,  intermarriages,  and  the  immense 


1  "Thy  will  be  done  in  Heaven;;  nearest  Prayer" — is  the  formula  sug- 
grant  peace  to  them  that  fear  Thee  on  !  gested  by  the  Talmud  for  the  hours- 
Earth ;  and  whatever  pleaseth  Thee,  ;  of  mental  distraction  or  peril, 
do.    Blessed  art  Thou,  O  Lord,  who  ; 


92  ISLAM. 

family-likeness,  so  to  speak,  of  the  two  descendants  of  Abra- 
ham— for  the  derivation  of  the  Arabs  from  Ishmael,  what- 
ever may  be  alleged  to  the  contrary,  seems  unquestionably 
an  ante-Mohammedan  notion — facilitated  the  levelling  work 
of  Jewish  cosmopolitanism.     Acquainted,  as  we  said,  with 
both   Halachah    and    Haggadah,   they   seemed,   under    the 
peculiar  story-loving  influence  of  their  countrymen,  to  have 
cultivated  more  particularly  the  latter  with  all  its  gorgeous 
hues  and  colours.     Valiant  with  the  sword,  which  they  not 
rarely  turned  against  their  own  kinsmen,  they  never  omitted 
the  fulfilment  of  their  greatest  religious  duty — the  release  of 
their  captives,  though  these  might  be  their  adversaries ;  and 
further,  like  their  fathers,  from  of  old,  they  kept  the  Sabbath 
holy  even  in  war,  though  the  prohibition  had  been  repealed. 
They  waited  for  the  Messiah,  and  they  turned  their  faces 
towards  Jerusalem.1     They  fasted,  they  prayed,  and  they 
scattered  around  them  the  seeds  of  such  high  culture  as  was 
contained  in  their  literature.     And  Arabia  called  them  the 
People  of  the  "  Book ; "  even  as  Hegel  has  called  them  the 
People  of  the  "  Geist,"     These  seeds,  though  some  fell  on 
stones,  and  some  on   the   desert   sand,   had   borne   fruit  a 
thousandfold.     Of  generally  practical,  nay  vital,  institutions 
which  they  had  introduced,  long  before  Mohammed,  into  the 
land  of  their  adoption,  may  be  mentioned  the  Calendar;  and 
the  intercalary  month  was  by  the  Arabs  called,  in  grateful 
acknowledgment  Nassi  (Prince),  the  title  of  the  Babylonian 
head  of  the  Jewish  Diaspora,     The  Kaaba  and  the  Pilgrimage, 
Yoctan   and   Ishmael,  Zemzem   and   Hagar,  received  their 
colouring  from  Jewish  Arabs.     They  were  altogether  looked 
up  to  with  much  reverence,  and  their  superiority  would  also 


1  The  synagogues  were  generally 
built  in  the  form  of  a  theatre,  the 
portal  due  west,  so  that  the  worship- 
per's face  was  turned  to  the  east,  even 
to  the  Holy  of  Holies  of  the  Temple 
of  Jerusalem,  in  pious  allusion  to  the 


vant  shall  make  towards  this  place." 
Daniel  prayed  towards  Jerusalem 
and  "  the  tower  of  David,  builded  for 
an  armoury  "  of  the  Song  of  Songs,  is 
taken  allegorically  as  an  allusion  to 
that  enduring  and  mighty  Holiness 


words  (1  Kings  viii.  29),  "  That  their  J  that  ever  belonged  to  the  spot,  once 
eyes  may  be  open  towards  this  house  j  hallowed  by  the  presence  of  the  She- 
night  and  day  .  .  .  that  thou  mayest  '  chinah.  And  the  early  Church  fol- 
liearken  to  the  prayers  which  thy  ser-  lowed  also  in  this  respect. 


ISLAM.  93 

politically  have  stood  them  in  very  good  stead,  when  Moham- 
med subsequently  turned  against  them,  had  they  known  what 
united  action  meant. 

When  we  said  that  there  were  distinguished  poets  among 
them,  we  meant  poets  not  Jewish,  but  purely  Arabic.  Their 
poems  are  all  of  intensely  national  Arabic  type.  Among 
others  we  have  fragments  by  Assamael  (Samuel),  "the  faith- 
ful," a  great  chief,  who  dwelt  in  a  strong  castle,  and  who,, 
rather  than  betray  his  friend's  confidence,  saw  his  boy  cut  in 
twain  before  his  eyes.  What  has  survived  of  his  songs 
breathes  noble  pride  and  loftiness  of  soul,  tempered  at  times 
by  a  strange  sadness  :  joy  of  life  and  love  of  conviviality ;  as 
indeed  one  of  his  poems  opens  with  the  mournful  question 
whether  the  women  would  lament  him  after  his  death,  and 
how  ?  Both  his  son  Grarid,  and  his  grandson  Suba  were  poets  ; 
so  were  Arrabi,  whose  sons  fought  against  Mohammed ;  and 
Aus,  by  whom  we  have  a  kind  of  characteristic,  yet  mild, 
protest  against  his  wife's  change  of  creed.  "  We  live,"  he 
sings,  "  according  to  the  Law  (Thora)  and  Faith  of  Moses, 
but  Mohammed's  Faith  is  also  good.  Each  of  us  thinks 
himself  in  the  right  path."  Then  there  is  Suraih,  who 
"  would  drink  from  the  cup  of  those  that  are  of  noble  heart, 
even  if  there  be  twofold  poison  therein ; "  and  about  four  or 
five  more,  who  sing  of  love  and  wine,  the  sword  and  faithful- 
ness, hospitality  and  the  horse.  There  were  also  Jewish 
poetesses,  whose  poems,  as  we  already  mentioned,  were  "  bit- 
terer to  Mohammed  than  arrows,"  and  who  did  not  escape  his 
vengeance. 

We  had  to  tarry  somewhat  on  this  out-of-the-way  field  of 
the  circumstances  and  position  of  Arabian  Jews — not  a  little 
of  which  would,  but  for  Islam,  never  have  been  known.  Of 
their  tenets  and  ceremonies,  their  legends  and  dogmas,  as 
transferred  to  Islam,  we  have  to  treat  separately.  And  such 
was  Arabia  as  to  difference  of  creeds  when  Mohammed  arose. 
We  left  him  at  the  moment  when  he  began  to  become  aware 
of  his  "  Mission."  But  he  was  not  without  special  pre- 
decessors. These  were  the  Hanifs,  literally  in  Talmudical 
parlance — "  hypocrites."  (t  Four  shall  not  see  God,"  says  the 


94 


ISLAM. 


Talmud,  "  the  scoffers,  the  Hanifs  "  ("  who  are  to  be  exposed 
at  all  hazards,"  while  generally  it  is  considered  better  "  to  be 
thrown  into  a  fiery  furnace  than  bring  any  one  to  public 
shame  " *),  "  the  liars,  the  slanderers."  These  Hanifs  form  a 
very  curious  and  most  important  phase  of  Arabian  faith 
before  Mohammed — a  phase  of  Jewish  Christianity  or 
Christian  Judaism.  They  loved  to  style  themselves  also 
"  Abrahamitic  Sabians,"  and  Mohammed,  at  the  outset,  called 
himself  one  of  them.  They  were,  to  all  intents  and  purposes, 
"heretics."  They  believed  in  One  God.  They  had  the 
Law  and  the  Gospel,  and  further  certain  "  Bolls  of  Abraham 
and  Moses,"  called  Ashmaat,  to  which  Mohammed  at  first 
appeals.  This  word  Ashmaat,  or  Shamaata,  has  likewise 
given  rise  to  most  hazardous  conjectures.  To  us  it  appears 
very  simply  the  Talmudical  Shemaata,  which  is  identical 
with  Halachah  or  legal  tradition.  In  Arabia  it  seems  to 
have  assumed  the  signification  of  Midrash  in  general,  chiefly 
as  regards  its  Haggadistic  or  legendary  part.2  These  mys- 
terious Rolls,  about  which  endless  discussions  have  arisen, 
thus  seem,  to  our  mind,  to  have  been  neither  more  nor  less 
than  certain  collections  of  Midrash,  beginning,  as  is  its  wont, 
with  stern  Halachah,  ending,  as  is  still  more  its  wont, 
with  gorgeous  dreams  of  fancy,  woven  round  the  sainted 
heads  of  the  Patriarchs,  with  transcendental  allegories, — 
"tales  of  angels,  fairy  legends,  festal  songs,  and  words  of 
wisdom."  Nor  does  it  much  matter  what  were  the  original 
names  of  these  rolls  or  collections  in  question  (there  must 
have  been  scores  upon  scores  of  them),  since  there  is,  as  far 
as  we  can  gather  their  probable  contents,  but  little  in  them 
which  has  not  survived  in  one  form  or  the  other  in  our  extant 
Midrash-books. 

There  were  some  very  prominent  men  among  this  sect,  if 
sect  it  may  be  called.  Foremost  among  them  stands  one 
Omayya,  a  highly-gifted  and  most  versatile  poet,  who  never 


1  See  page  57. 

2  We  have  noticed  the  same  process 
•with  regard  to  the  word  Midrash  it- 


self in  Palestine  and  Babylonia.    See 
page  13. 


ISLAM.  95 

would  acknowledge  Mohammed,  and  ceased  not  to  write 
satires  upon  him ;  more  especially  as  it  had  been  his  inten- 
tion to  proclaim  himself  prophet.  Besides  him  there  are 
recorded  four  special  men  (all  relations  of  the  Prophet, 
Waraka  among  them),  who,  disgusted  with  the  fetishism  into 
which  their  countrymen  had  sunk,  once  met  at  the  Kaaba, 
during  the  annual  feast,  and  thus  expressed  their  secret 
opinion  to  each  other.  "  Shall  we  encompass  a  stone  which 
neither  heareth  nor  seeth,  neither  helpeth  nor  hurteth  ?  Let  us 
seek  a  better  faith  "  they  said.  And  they  went  abroad  to  seek 
and  to  find  the  Hanifite  creed — the  "  religion  of  Abraham." 

This  religion  of  Abraham,  Mohammed  came  to  re-establish, 
Mohammed  the  Hanifite,  who  succeeded  where  the  others 
failed.  He  used  the  .arguments,  the  doctrine,  occasionally 
the  very  words  of  these  his  predecessors, — though  we  have 
here  to  be  doubly  on  our  guard  against  the  possible  colouring 
of  later  Mohammedan  tradition — chiefly  of  Zaid,  who  refrained 
from  eating  blood  and  that  which  had  been  killed  for  idolatry 
— two  things  pointing  emphatically  to  Jewish  teaching.1 
Zaid,  it  is  reported,  also  abhorred  the  barbarous  burying 
alive  of  children,  then  customary  among  the  Arabian  savages, 
and  "  worshipped  the  God  of  Abraham."  Also,  did  he  say, 
"  0  Lord,  if  I  knew  what  form  of  worship  Thou  desirest,  I 
would  adopt  it.  But  I  know  it  not."  And  when  his  nephew 
after  his  death  asked  the  Prophet  to  pray  for  him,  Mohammed 
said,  "  Verily  I  will :  he  will  form  a  Church  of  his  own  on 
the  Day  of  Judgment."  Nay  more,  Zaid  had  actually  taught 
at  Mecca,  and  Mohammed  openly  declared  himself  his  pupil. 

We  shall  return  to  this  "  Eeligion  of  Abraham,"  which  is 
the  clue  to  Islam — and  the  mystery  of  which  the  Midrash 
alone  solves  satisfactorily.  At  this  stage  it  behoves  us  to 
follow  out  the  vicissitudes  of  Mohammed's  career  as  briefly 
as  we  may :  for  without  these  we  could  never  fully  compre- 
hend that  religion,  whereof  he  is  the  corner-stone  and  the 
pinnacle. 

And  first  as  to  his  early  miracles,  which  nearly  proved  his 


Foremost  among  the  seven  fundamental  "  Laws  of  the  Sons  of  Noah.' 


96  ISLAM. 

ruin.  The  Jews  required  a  sign,  says  the  New  Testament. 
The  desire  to  see  the  Prophet,  the  chosen  and  gifted  person, 
perform  things  apparently  contrary  to  what  is  called  nature — 
sights  and  sounds  to  wonder  at,  things  by  which  to  prove  his 
intimate  communication  with  and  the  command  over  the 
more  or  less  personified  powers  of  the  Cosmos,  of  which 
ancient  and  mediaeval  times  had  so  vague  a  notion — is  very 
easily  understood ;  and  both  the  Old  and  New  Testament 
are  replete  with  extraordinary  manifestations.  The  Talmud, 
while  representing,  to  a  certain  extent,  what  is  called  the 
"advanced"  opinion  of  the  time,  certainly  contains  views 
somewhat  different  from  the  popular  one.  "  Esther's  Miracle," 
it  says,  "  was  the  last — the  end  of  all  miracles"  And  she  is 
called, in  allusion  to  the  well-known  Psalm-heading,  "Hind  of 
the  Dawn  " — '  'because  iviih  her  it  first  became  Light"  And 
since  there  is  nothing  in  the  whole  story  of  Esther  which 
resembles  in  the  faintest  degree  a  "  supernatural "  act ;  and 
since,  moreover,  the  name  of  God  does  not  even  appear  in 
the  book  from  beginning  to  end,  this  Talmudic  parlance  of 
"  miracles  "  is  very  like  the  modern  use  of  the  word  "  pro- 
phet," of  which  it  was  remarked  the  other  day  that  "  many 
living  writers,  having  first  stripped  the  word  of  its  ancient 
meaning,  bestow  it  freely  upon  anybody."  Furthermore  the 
Mishnah  had  distinctly  declared  that  miracles  were  "  created  " 
from  the  very  beginning,  in  the  gloaming  of  the  sixth  day. 
"  God,"  says  the  Talmud,  still  more  explicitly  "  made  it  a 
condition  upon  the  sea,  when  He  created  it,  to  open  itself 
before  the  Israelites;  the  fire  to  leave  the  three  martyrs- 
unscathed  ;  the  heavens  to  open '  to  the  voice  of  Hezekiah," 
&C.1  No  less  clearly  is  the  meaning  of  the  Masters  further 
expressed  in  such  sentences  as  these :  "  The  healing  of  a  sick 
person  often  is  a  greater  miracle  than  that  which  happened 
to  the  men  in  the  pit.  Those  that  have  been  saved  front' 
flagrant  sin  may  consider  that  a  miracle  has  happened  to 
them.  Do  not  reckon  upon  a  miracle — they  do  not  happen 
every  day.  Those  to  whom  a  miracle  happens  often  know 


See  page  51. 


ISLAM.  97 

it  not  themselves."  &c.  &c.  But  the  old  craving  for  wonders 
was  either  still  strong  among  them,  or  they  wished  to  vex 
Mohammed's  soul — as  they  did  in  a  thousand  bitter  little 
ways — when  they  found  themselves  disappointed  in  him,  and 
so  incited  people  to  ask  him  for  some  miraculous  performance. 
He  is  asked,  he  complains,  to  cause  wells  and  rivers  to  gush 
forth,  to  bring  down  the  heaven  in  pieces,  to  remove  moun- 
tains, to  have  a  house  of  gold,  to  ascend  to  heaven  by  a  ladder, 
to  cause  the  dead  to  speak,  and  to  make  Allah  and  his  Angels 
testify  to  him — and  he  indignantly  bursts  out,  "  My  Lord  be 
praised !  Am  I  more  than  a  man  sent  as  an  apostle  ?  .  .  . 
Angels  do  not  commonly  walk  the  earth,  or  God  would  have 
despatched  an  angel  to  preach  His  truth  to  you;"  and,  he 
says,  when  they  do  see  a  sign — even  the  moon  splitting — 
these  unbelievers  but  turn  aside,  saying :  "  This  is  a  well- 
devised  trick,  a  sleight  of  hand." 

How  well  he  had  entered  into  the  meaning  of  those  Tal- 
mudical  notions  on  miracles — "Esther's  being  the  last" — 
and  how  positively  he  spoke  upon  that  point,  though  in  vain, 
is  best  shown  by  his  protest  that  "  the  miracles  of  all  pro- 
phets were  confined  to  their  own  times.  My  miracle  is  the 
Koran  which  shall  remain  for  ever,  and  I  am  hopeful  of 
having  more  followers  than  any  of  the  other  prophets." 
"  Former  prophets,"  he  also  used  to  say  (and  this  is  one  of 
the  most  momentous  dicta)  "  were  sent  to  their  own  sects.  I 
was  sent  to  all.  I  have  been  sent  for  one  thing  only :  to 
make  straight  the  crooked  paths,  to  unite  the  strayed  tribes, 
and  to  teach  that '  There  is  no  God  but  God  by  whom  the 
eyes  of  the  blind  and  the  ears  of  the  deaf  shall  be  opened, 
and  the  hearts  of  those  who  know  nothing.' "  And  over  and 
over  again  he  points  to  those  much  greater  signs  "  in  Heaven 
and  on  Earth"  than  any  wondrous  manifestation  that  had 
ever  been  wrought  by  prophets — the  sun,  and  the  moon,  and 
the  stars,  the  day  and  the  night,  the  structure  of  men's 
bodies,  the  mountains  which  steady  the  earth,  the  water  that 
comes  from  on  high  to  slake  the  thirst  of  man,  and  cattle, 
and  plant,  and  tree :  even  the  olive-tree,  and  the  palm-tree, 
and  the  vine — and  he  speaks  to  these  desert  folk  of  the  sea 

H 


98  ISLAM. 

upon  which  walk  the  great  ships.  Are  not  all  these  things 
made  for  man's  use  and  service,  even  while  they  serve  Allah  ? 
..."  I  never  said  that  Allah's  treasures  are  in  my  hands, 
that  I  knew  the  hidden  things,  or  that  I  was  an  Angel.  .  .  . 
I,  who  cannot  even  help  or  trust  myself,  unless  Allah  willeth. 
Will  ye  not  reflect  a  littler"  ....  Did  they  perceive  the 
flashes  of  lightning  and  the  thunderous  rolls  ?  Allah  would 
show  them  His  miracles  in  good  time — even  the  yawning 
mouth  of  Hell.  Then  they  would  indeed  believe,  even  as 
those  people  of  the  Cities  of  the  Plain  had  believed,  when  it 
was  too  late.  Had  their  caravans  passed  the  Dead  Sea — 
even  Sodom  and  Gomorrha  ?  Did  they  know  how  Thamud 
and  Ad  were  destroyed  by  a  terrible  cry  from  Heaven,  or 
what  had  become  of  Pharaoh?  "These  are  the  signs  of 
Allah.  .  .  .  He  giveth  Life,  and  He  giveth  Death,  and  unto 
Him  ye  must  return."  .  .  .  And  to  leave  no  doubt  as  to 
what  his  own  signs  and  wonders  really  consist  of,  the  single 
verses  of  the  Koran  are  called  Ayat  =  Hebr.  Ot : — letter,  sign, 
wonder. 

But  all  these  protests  availed  nought.  Miracles  there  must 
be,  and  miracles  there  were.  Three — and  that  is  all — are 
"hinted  at  in  the  Koran.  First,  Mohammed's  seeing  Gabriel 
"  in  the  open  horizon,"  when  despair  drove  him  to  attempt 
self-destruction :  "  One  mighty  in  power,  endued  with  under- 
standing," revealed  himself  to  him,  then  "on  the  highest 
part  of  the  horizon,  at  two  bows'  length."  And  again  he 
appears  to  him  under  a  certain  tree,  "  the  Tree  of  the  Limit " 
—a  lotos-tree:  covered  with  myriads  of  angels,  near  the 
Garden  of  Repose.  This  second  vision,  however,  is  probably 
connected  with  the  Miraj,  or  Mohammed's  Night-journey. 
The  Jews  had  told  the  Arabians  that  no  prophet  ever  arose 
out  of  the  Holy  Land,  and  that  Moses  had  gone  up  to 
Heaven.  What  they  did  not  tell  them  probably  was  that 
other  significant  saying,  that,  since  the  destruction  of  Jeru- 
salem, the  gift  of  prophecy  had  fallen  to  fools  and  babes — a 
dictum  we  have  often  enough  felt  inclined  to  quote  of  our 
own  days.  And  further,  that  the  Talmud  states,  as  expressly 
as  can  be,  that  "  Moses  never  went  up  to  Heaven," — even  as 


ISLAM.  99 

it  is  written,  "The  Heavens  are  Jehovah's,  and  the  Earth 
hath  He  given  to  the  children  of  man." l 

It  was  therefore  absolutely  necessary  that  the  Prophet 
should  have  been  in  the  Holy  Land,  nay,  in  Jerusalem.  And 
the  Miraj  happened,  the  transfiguration,  the  ascension,  the 
real  consummation  of  Mohammed's  mission,  and  the  centre 
of  Islamic  transcendental  legend  and  creed.  A  whole  volume 
of  traditions  exists  on  this  one  single  point. 

"  '  Praise  be  unto  Him,'  says  the  Koran,  '  who  transported  His  servant 
by  night  from  the  temple  Al  Haram  (Mecca)  to  the  remotest  temple  (of 
Jerusalem),  the  circuit  of  which  we  have  blessed,  that  we  might  show  Him 
some  of  our  signs.  Verily  He,  that  heareth,  that  seeth  ! '"  .  .  . 

And  in  verse  sixty-two  of  that  same  chapter,  this  journey  is 
emphatically  declared  to  be  a  "  Vision  " — "  a  dream  " — "  a 
trial  for  men." 

And  these  are  its  brief  outlines,  though  Mohammed's  own 
•account  was  probably  still  more  briefly  and  soberly  conceived 
as  compared  with  the  worlds  of  golden  dreams  in  which  the 
later  legend  revels.2 

In  the  middle  of  the  night  Gabriel  appeared  to  Moham- 
med, and  told  him  that  the  Lord  had  intended  to  bestow 
honour  upon  him  such  as  He  had  not  bestowed  upon  any  born 
being  yet,  such  as  had  never  come  into  any  man's  heart. 
He  arose,  and  they  went  to  the  Kaaba,  which  they  encom- 
passed seven  times.  Gabriel  then  took  out  Mohammed's 
heart,  washed  it  in  the  well  Zemzem,  filled  it  with  faith  and 
knowledge,  and  put  it  back  in  its  place.  He  was  then  clothed 
in  a  robe  of  light,  and  was  covered  with  a  turban  of  light, 
in  which,  in  thousandfold  rays  of  light  gleamed  the  words, 
"  Mohammed  is  God's  Prophet ;  Mohammed  is  God's  Friend." 
Then,  surrounded  by  myriads  of  angels,  he  bestrode  the 


1  See  page  54. 

2  We  may  have  occasion  to  trace 
.some  of  the  gorgeous  features  of  this 
Vision  in  the  latter  Haggadah,  when 
we  speak  of  Mohammed's  Heaven  and 
Hell.     Exceedingly  characteristic  are 
the  differences  on  some  points  : 


the  Mohammedan  legend  of  that  fifth 
Heaven  of  the  Midrash  "  Gan  Eden," 
which  is  reserved   for    the  souls  of 
noble    women — Pharaoh's    daughter, 
who  so  tenderly  took  pity  on  the  child 
Moses,  occupying  the  first  place  in 
„    the  first  circle, 
other  [things,  the   entire  omission  in 

H  2 


100  ISLAM. 

Borak — which  only  means  Lightning — who  had  the  face  of 
a  man;  his  red  chest  was  as  a  ruby,  and  his  back  like  a 
white  pearl.  His  wings  reached  from  the  eastern  point  of  the 
horizon  to  the  western,  and  at  every  step  he  went  as  far  as- 
eye  could  see.  Thrice  Mohammed  prayed  while  he  flew  :  at 
Medina,  at  Madyan,  at  Bethlehem.  Sweet  voices  were  call- 
ing— to  the  left,  to  the  right,  before  him,  behind  him: 
beautiful  women  flitted  around :  he  heeded  nought.  And 
the  angel  told  him  that  had  he  listened  to  the  first  voice,  his 
followers  would  have  become  Jews ;  to  the  second,  Christians ;. 
to  the  third,  they  would  have  given  up  Paradise  for  the  plea- 
sures of  this  world.  At  Jerusalem  he  entered,  greeted  by 
new  hosts  of  angels,  the  Temple  (and  the  ring  by  which  the 
Borak  was  fastened  has  no  doubt  been  seen  by  many  of  our 
readers  near  the  "  Dome  of  the  Kock  ")  ;  and  here  all  the 
prophets,  Christ  among  them,  were  assembled ;  and  very 
striking  are  the  likenesses  given  of  them.  Abraham  resem- 
bled Mohammed  most  of  all. 

Prayers  were  said,  and  Mohammed  acted  as  Priest  Pre- 
centor. Most  of  the  prophets  then  held  a  brief  discourse  in 
praise  of  God,  and  descriptive  of  their  own  individual  mis- 
sion on  earth.  Mohammed,  having  spoken  last,  ascended 
Jacob's  ladder,  standing  upon  the  Kock,  the  same  which 
forms,  according  to  the  Midrash,  the  foundation  stone  of  the 
earth.  And  a  very  strange-looking  rock  it  is,  rising  a  few 
feet  above  the  marble  around,  scarcely  touched  with  the 
chisel,  and  at  its  south-western  corner  there  is  seen  the  "  foot- 
print of  the  Prophet,"  and  next  to  it  the  "handprint  of 
Gabriel,"  who  held  down  the  rock  as  it  tried  to  rise  heaven- 
wards with  God's  Messenger.  The  ladder  on  which  Moham- 
med mounted  into  the  regions  of  light  is  the  same  which 
Jacob  saw  in  his  dream :  it  reaches  from  Heaven  to  Earth, 
and  on  it  the  souls  of  the  departed  return  to  God.  It  is 
made  of  ruby  and  emerald,  of  gold  and  silver,  and  of  precious 
stones. 

Having  passed  the  angel  who  held  the  seven  earths  and 
the  seven  heavenly  spheres,  and  the  blue  abyss  in  which 
float  all  ideal  prototypes  of  things  sublunary,  he  and  Gabriel 


ISLAM.  101 

arrived  at  the  Gates  of  the  first  Heaven  of  the  World,  where 
myriads  of  new  angels  held  watch.  Both  he  and  Gabriel 
entered  and  found  other  myriads  praising  God  in  the  postures 
of  Muslim  prayer.  On  a  magnificent  throne  sat  Adam, 
dressed  in  light,  the  human  souls  arrayed  by  his  sides — to 
his  right  the  good  souls,  to  his  left  the  wicked  ones.  Fur- 
ther on  were  Paradise  and  Hell.  Punishments  were  wrought 
here  according  to  earthly  deeds.  The  miserly  souls  were 
naked,  and  hungry,  and  thirsty  ;  thieves  and  swindlers  sat  at 
tables  filled  with  gorgeous  things,  of  which  they  were  not 
allowed  to  participate;  and  scoffers  and  slanderers  carried 
heavy  spiked  logs  of  wood  that  tore  their  flesh,  even  as  they 
had  wounded  the  hearts  of  their  fellow-men.  Thus  they 
passed  heaven  after  heaven.  In  the  second  they  found  Christ 
and  John  the  Baptist ;  in  the  third,  Joseph  and  David ;  in 
the  fourth,  Enoch ;  in  the  fifth,  Aaron ;  in  the  sixth,  Moses, 
who  wept  because  Mohammed  was  to  be  more  exalted  than 
he  had  been.  In  the  highest  heaven  they  found  Abraham. 
Above  the  seventh  heaven  they  came  to  a  tree  of  vast 
leaves  and  fruits.  In  it  is  Gabriel's  dwelling-place,  on  one 
branch  of  untold'  expanse ;  in  another,  myriads  of  angels  are 
reading  the  Pentateuch ;  in  another,  other  myriads  of  angels 
read  the  Gospel ;  yet  in  another,  they  sing  the  Psalms ;  and 
in  another,  they  chant  the  Koran,  from  eternity  to  eternity. 
Four  rivers  flow  forth  from  this  region,  one  of  which  is  the 
river  of  Mercy.  There  is  also  a  House  of  Prayer  there,  right 
above  the  Kaaba.1  Near  it  a  tank  of  light,  from  wrhich, 
when  Gabriel's  light  approaches  it,  seventy-thousand  angels 
spring  into  existence — which  will  remind  our  readers  of  the 
river  of  fire  that  rolls  its  flames  under  the  Divine  throne, 
and  out  of  which  rise  ever  new  myriads  of  angels,  who  praise 
God  and  sink  back  into  nought.2  They  approach  the  temple, 
singing  praises  unto  God ;  and  each  time,  when  their  voices 
resound,  a  new  angel  is  born.  "  Not  a  drop  of  water  is  in 


1  In  accordance  with  the  Hagga- 
distic  notion  of  the  "Jerusalem  above," 
and  the  "  heavenly  Jerusalem  "  of  the 


New  Testament. 
2  See  page  50. 


102  ISLAM. 

the  sea,  not  a  leaf  on  a  tree,  not  a  span  of  space  in  the  heavens 
that  is  not  guarded  by  an  angel."  And  to  this  day  all  these 
gorgeous  transcendentalisms  and  day-drearns  survive  bodily 
in  certain  Jewish  mystic  liturgical  poems  (Piut),  into  which 
the  golden  rivers  of  the  Haggadah  have  been  turned  by 
Poets  or  "  Paitanas  "  at  an  early  period.1 

A  space  further,  a  little  space,  after  the  Tree  of  the  Limit, 
Mohammed  found  himself  of  a  sudden  alone.  Neither  Ga- 
briel nor  Borak  dared  go  beyond  it ;  and  he  heard  a  voice 
calling  "  Approach."  And  he  passed  on,  and  curtain  after 
curtain,  and  veil  after  veil  was  drawn  up  before  him  and  fell 
behind  him.  When  the  last  curtain  rose,  he  stood  within 
two  bow-shots  from  the  Throne ;  and  here — says  the  Koran — 
"  he  saw  the  greatest  of  the  signs  of  his  Lord."  No  pen  dared 
to  say  more.  "  There  was  a  great  stillness,  and  nothing  was 
heard  except  the  silent  sound  of  the  reed,  wherewith  the 
decrees  of  God  are  inscribed  upon  the  tablets  of  Fate."  .  .  . 

It  would  indeed  be  a  labour  of  love,  and  not  without  its  re- 
ward, to  follow  this  Miraj-Saga  through  all  its  stages,  down 
to  the  Persian  and  Turkish  cycles.  But  it  is  not  our  task. 
All  we  have  to  add  here  is  that  Mohammed  is  not  to  be 
made  responsible  for  some  of  his  enthusiastic  admirers  when 
they  transformed  this  Vision — a  vision  as  grand  as  any  in  the 
whole  Divine  Comedy  (which  indeed  has  unconsciously  bor~ 
rowed  some  of  its  richest  plumage  from  it),  but  which  Mo- 
hammed, until  he  was  sick  of  it,  insisted  on  calling  a  Dream 
— into  insipidity  and  drivel. 

One  feature  more  deserves  mention.  When  Zaid  asked 
the  Prophet  after  his  little  daughter  who  had  died,  he 
answered  that  she  was  in  Paradise  and  happy.  And  Zaid 
wept  bitterly. 

Eemains,  as  of  traditional  miracles,  the  last  one  of  the  two- 
Angels  who  took  out  Mohammed's  heart  when  he  was  a  boy,, 
purified  it  in  snow,  then  weighed  it,  and  found  it  weightier 
than  all  the  thousands  they  put  into  the  other  scale : — a 


1  In  Western  Europe  this  part  of  the  Jewish  'Liturgy,  as  too  mystical, 
for  the  ^Yeaker  brethren,  has  now  mostly  been  abrogated. 


ISLAM.  103 

parable  equally  transparent,  and  hardly  a  "  miracle  "  in  the 
conventional  sense  of  the  word. 

Only  one  command  was  given  to  Mohammed  on  that  oc- 
casion of  the  Ascension  : — that  his  faithful  should  pray  fifty 
times  daily.  And  when  he  returned  to  where  Moses  waited 
for  him,  and  told  him  this,  Moses  made  him  return  to  pray 
God  to  reduce  the  number.  And  it  was  made  forty.  "  This  is 
still  too  much,"  Moses  said;  "I  know  that  the  faithful  will 
not  be  able  to  do  even  thus  much."  And  again  and  again  was 
the  number  reduced  till  it  came  to  five,  and  Mohammed 
no  longer  dared  return  to  God,  though  Moses  urged  him 
to  do  so. 

Yery  strikingly  indeed  does  the  Haggadah  manifest  her  con- 
stant presence,  not  merely  throughout  this  whole  Vision,  but 
even  in  such  minute  features  as  this  last,  of  God's  instructing 
Mohammed  about  prayer.1  For  when  the  Pentateuch  re- 
cords that  extraordinary  manifestation  of  God  to  Moses  on  the 
rock,  where  the  glory  of  the  Lord  passeth  by  and  proclaims  : 
"  Jehovah,  Jehovah,  God,  merciful  and  gracious,  long  suffer- 
ing, and  abundant  of  goodness  and  truth,  and  keeping  mercy 
for  thousands,  forgiving  iniquity,  and  transgression  and  sin  " 
.  .  .  the  Talmud  first  of  all  introduces  this  passage,  as  is  its 
wont  in  the  like  anthropomorphistic  passages,  with  the  awe- 
stricken,  half-trembling  words  that,  If  Holy  Writ  had  not 
said  this,  no  man  would  dare  to  speak  of  a  like  manifestation ; 
and,  next,  proceeds  to  explain  that  "  God  showed  Moses  how 
that  men  should  pray" — "  Let  them  invoke  my  Mercy  and 
my  Long-suffering.  I  will  forgive  them.  Jehovah — twice 
repeated — means,  It  is  Jehovah,  even  I,  before  man  sinneth, 
and  I,  the  selfsame  Jehovah,  after  he  has  sinned  and  re- 
pented." 

It  is  time  that  we  should  now  return,  after  these  many  in- 
dispensable little  monographs,  to  the  founder  of  Islam  him- 
self, as  a  historical  personage.  Ere  we  proceed  to  his  book 
and  faith,  we  must  sum  up  the  events  that  led  first  to  his 
Flight,  that  event  with  which  not  only  he,  but  Arabia,  enters 


1  For  the  shortening  of  it  see  above,  p.  91,  note. 


104  ISLAM. 

history,  an  event  fraught  with  intense  importance  for  all 
mankind. 

When  Mohammed  had  become  clear  as  to  his  mission 
he  sought  converts.  And  his  first  convert  was  his  faithful 
motherly  Chadija ;  his  second,  the  freed  slave  Zaid,  probably 
a  Christian,  whom  he  adopted ;  and  his  third,  his  small 
cousin  Ali,  ten  years  of  age.  Chadija,  his  good  angel,  Tra- 
dition reports, 

"  believed  in  Mohammed  and  believed  in  the  truth  of  the  Revelation,  and 
fortified  him  in  his  aims.  She  was  the  first  who  believed  in  God,  in  His 
messenger,  and  in  the  Revelation.  Thereby  God  had  sent  him  comfort, 
for  as  often  as  he  heard  aught  disagreeable,  contradictory,  or  how  he  was 
shown  to  be  a  liar,  she  was  sad  about  it.  God  comforted  him  through  her 
when  he  returned  to  her,  in  rousing  him  up  again  and  making  his  burden 
more  light  to  him,  assuring  him  of  her  own  faith  in  him,  and  representing 
to  him  the  futility  of  men's  babble." 

And,  in  truth,  when  she  died,  not  merely  he  but  Islam  lost 
much  of  their  fervour,  much  of  their  purity.  He  would  not 
be  comforted,  though  he  married  many  wives  after  her ;  and 
the  handsomest  and  youngest  of  his  wives  would  never  cease 
being  jealous  of  that  "  dead,  toothless  old  woman."  Abu 
Bakr,  a  wealthy  merchant,  energetic,  prudent,  and  honest, 
joined  at  once.  He  had  probably  been  a  fellow-disciple  of 
Mohammed  at  the  feet  of  Zaid  the  Skeptic  and  was  his  con- 
fidant and  bosom  friend  throughout  his  life — the  only  one 
who  unhesitatingly  joined,  "  who  tarried  not,  neither  was  he 
perplexed,"  Mohammed  said  of  him.  It  was  he  who  stood  at 
the  head  of  the  twelve  chosen  Apostles  who  subsequently 
rallied  round  the  Prophet,  among  whom  we  find  Hamza,  the 
Lion  of  God,  Othman,  Omar,  and  the  rest,  men  of  energy, 
talent  and  wealth,  and  long  before  adverse  to  Paganism. 
Those  twelve  were  his  principal  advisers  while  he  lived,  and 
after  his  death  they  founded  an  empire  greater  than  that  of 
Alexander  of  Home.  As  to  Abu  Bakr,  he  was  but  twro  years 
younger  than  the  Prophet,  not  a  man  of  genius,  but  of  calm, 
clear,  impartial  judgment,  and  yet  of  so  tender  and  sympa- 
thetic a  heart  that  he  used  to  be  called  "  the  Sighing."  He 
was  not  only  one  of  the  most  popular  men,  but  also  rich  and 


ISLAM.  105 

generous,  and  thus  his  influence  cannot  well  be  overrated. 
It  is  his  adherence  to  Mohammed  throughout,  which,  even  by 
those  who  most  depreciate  the  Prophet,  is  taken  as  one  of 
the  highest  guarantees  of  the  latter's  sincerity.  Nay,  he  is 
said  to  have  done  more  for  Islam  than  Mohammed  himself—- 
not to  mention  that,  with  his  extensive  knowledge  of  gene- 
alogy, one  of  the  most  important  sciences  of  the  period,  he 
was  able  at  the  Prophet's  desire,  to  supply  Hassan,  the  poet 
of  the  Faith,  with  matter  for  satires  against  the  inimical 
Koreish. 

Most  of  Mohammed's  relations  seemed  to  have  treated  his 
teachings  with  scorn.  "  There  he  goes,"  they  used  to  say ; 
"  he  is  going  to  speak  to  the  world  about  the  Heavens  now." 
Abu  Lahab,  in  open  family  council,  called  him  a  fool, 
instantly  upon  which  followed  that  characteristic  Surah, 
"Perish  shall  the  hands  of  Abu  Lahab.  May  he  perish.  .  .  . 
And  his  wife  shall  carry  fuel  for  his  hell  fire."  The  other 
Meccans  treated  the  whole  story  of  his  mission,  his  revela- 
tions, and  dreams,  with  something  like  pitying  contempt,  as 
long*  as  he  kept  to  generalities,  though  the  number  of  uninflu- 
ential  adherents  grew  apace.  But  when  he  spoke  of  their 
gods,  which  they  naively  enough  would  call  Thagiit  (Error), 
the  technical  Jewish  word  for  Idols,1  as  Idols,  they  waxed 
wroth,  and  combined  against  him,  until  the  stir  both  he  and 
they  made,  spread  more  and  more  rapidly  and  dangerously, 
and  with  it  rose  his  own  courage.  He  felt  committed.  All 
hesitations,  and  doubts,  and  fears,  and  reconciliations,  he 
cast  behind  him  now.  He  openly  set  the  proud  Meccaus  at 
defiance.  He  cursed  those  who  reviled  him  with  burning- 
curses.  He  cursed  their  fathers  in  their  graves;  nay,  his 
own  father  would  undergo  eternal  punishment  in  hell,  for 
that  he  had  been  an  idolater.  "  There  is  no  God  but  Allah !  " 
He  cried  it  aloud,  day  and  night,  and  the  echoes  became  more 
and  more  frequent. 

His  life  was  in  jeopardy  now,  and  his  uncle  Abu  Talib, 
under  whose  protection  he  had  fallen  when  a  youth,  stood 


See  Tar  gums,  page  319,  post. 


106  ISLAM. 

forth  against  the  whole  clan.  He  would  protect  him  if  they 
all  combined  against  him.  Did  he  believe  in  his  Mission  ? 
Not  in  the  least.  He  remained  steadfast  in  his  own  creed  or 
skepticism  to  the  day  of  his  death.  But  he  was  an  Arab,  a 
Shernite.  He  had  adopted  him,  and  promised  to  protect 
him;  and  nothing,  absolutely  nothing,  could  cause  him  to 
break  that  holiest  of  engagements.  He  received  the  depu- 
tations of  his  kinsfolk,  listened  to  their  speeches,  "  how  that 
Mohammed  blasphemed  their  gods,  called  the  living  fools 
and  the  dead  denizens  of  hell  fire,  that  he  was  mad,  brought 
disgrace  upon  their  family  and  the  whole  clan,  that  he  ought 
to  be  extinguished  somehow — anyhow ; "  and  he  shook  his 
head,  saying  nothing/  or  next  to  nothing.  Again  they  re- 
turned and  again,  and,  at  last,  demanded  that  the  Possessed 
Man  should  be  given  up  to  them  to  be  dealt  with  according* 
to  their  judgment.  If  not — "  We  are  determined  no  longer 
to  bear  his  blasphemy  towards  our  gods,  nor  his  insults 
towards  ourselves.  If  thou  givest  him  protection,  we  will 
fight  both  him  and  thee,  until  one  of  us  shall  have  been 
extinguished." 

Abu  Talib  sent  for  Mohammed  and  told %5  him  what  had 
happened,  representing  to  him  the  position  of  affairs,  and 
spoke  to  him  about  the  danger  he  had  brought  upon  their 
good  old  tribe.  And  very  characteristic,  not  merely  for  the 
dramatis  persons,  but  for  Arab  feeling,  is  the  further  story 
of  the  interview.  Mohammed,  though  fully  believing  now 
that  even  his  uncle  was  about  to  abandon  him  to  the  mercies 
of  his  kinsfolk,  replied — "  By  Allah,  uncle,  if  they  put  the 
sun  to  my  right  hand,  and  the  moon  to  my  left,  I  will  not 
give  up  the  course  which  I  am  pursuing  until  Allah  gives 
me  success  or  I  perish."  And  the  tears  starting  to  his  eyes,, 
he  turned  to  depart.  Then  Abu  Talib  cried  out  aloud,  "  Son 
of  my  brother,  come  back  ! "  And  he  returned.  And  Abu 
Talib  said :  "  Depart  in  peace,  0  my  nephew !  Say  whatever 
thou  desirest,  for,  by  Allah,  I  will  in  no  wise  abandon  thee, 
for  ever." 

Fanaticism,  here  baffled,  sought  an  outlet  elsewhere.  As 
usual  the  weak  and  the  unprotected  became  the  first  victims 


ISLAM.  107 

and  martyrs  to  their  faith,  whilst  others  apostatised,  until 
Mohammed  himself  advised  his  converts  to  go  to  Abyssinia, 
where  there  ruled  a  pious  and  just  king,  and  where  they 
would  find  protection.  Here  also,  when  Meccan  ambassadors- 
pursued  them,  and  tried  to  obtain  their  extradition,  they 
declared  their  creed  to  the  Negus  in  these  words : — 

"  We  lived  in  ignorance,  in  idolatry,  and  unchastity,  the  strong  oppressed 
the  weak,  we  spoke  untruth,  we  violated  the  duties  of  hospitality.  Then 
a  prophet  arose,  one  whom  we  knew  from  our  youth,  with  whose  descent, 
and  conduct,  and  good  faith,  and  morality  we  are  all  well  acquainted.  He 
told  us  to  worship  one  God,  to  speak  the  truth,  to  keep  good  faith,  to 
assist  our  relations,  to  fulfil  the  rights  of  hospitality,  to  abstain  from  all 
things  impure,  ungodly,  unrighteous.  And  he  ordered  us  to  say  prayers, 
give  alms,  and  to  fast.  We  believed  in  him,  we  followed  him.  But 
our  countrymen  persecuted  us,  tortured  us.  and  tried  to  cause  us  to  for- 
sake our  religion,  and  now  we  throw  ourselves  upon  your  protection  with 
confidence." 

They  then  read  him  the  nineteenth  chapter  of  the  Koran,, 
which  speaks  of  Christ  and  John  the  Baptist,  and  they  all 
wept,  and  the  King  dismissed  the  Meccan  messengers,  re- 
fusing to  give  up  the  refugees.  As  to  the  nature  of  Christ 
they  gave  him  a  somewhat  vague  account,  with  which  the- 
King,  however,  agreed — to  his  later  discomfiture. 

This  nineteenth  chapter,  which  so  moved  them  all,  con- 
tains the  story  both  of  the  Annunciation  of  John's  birth  to 
Zacharias,  and  that  of  Christ's  birth  to  the  Virgin.  It  i& 
here  where  Maryam  =  Mary,  "  the  daughter  of  Amran,  the 
sister  of  Harun,"  is  described,  as  in  the  Gospel  of  the  Infancy,, 
as  leaning  on  a  barren  trunk  of  a  palm-tree  when  the  throes 
come  upon  her,  and  she  cries,  "  Would  to  God  that  I  had 
been  dead  and  forgotten  before  this."  ....  And  a  voice 
came  from  within,  "Grieve  not."  And  a  rivulet  gushed 
forth  at  her  feet,  and  the  erst  withered  palm  glistened  with 
luscious  dates.  Then,  taunted  by  the  people  for  having 
borne  a  child — "  her  father  not  being  a  bad  man,  nor  her 
mother  disreputable  " — the  child  itself,  even  Christ,  to  whom 
she  mutely  points,  answers  to  everybody's  wonderment,  out 
of  his  cradle,  in  this  wise  :  "I  am  a  servant  of  Allah.  He 
has  given  me  the  Book,  and  He  has  appointed  ine  as  a 


108  ISLAM. 

Prophet."  And  a  few  verses  further  on,  a  new  rhyme  indi- 
cates the  commencement  of  a  new  episode,  which  reads  as 
follows:  "This  is  Jesus,  the  son  of  Mary  am,  according  to 
the  true  doctrine  "  (not  "  the  words  of  truth,"  as  often  trans- 
lated), "  which  they  doubt  It  is  not  fit  for  God  that  He 
should  have  a  son.  Praise  to  Him!"  (i.e.,  far  be  it  from 
Him).  And  finally  at  the  end  of  this  same  chapter,— 

"  They  say  God  has  begotten  a  son.  In  this  ye  utter  a  blasphemy ; 
•and  but  little  is  wanting  but  the  Heavens  should  tear  open,  and  the 
earth  cleave  asunder,  and  the  mountains  fall  down,  for  that  they  attribute 
children  to  the  Merciful,  whereas  it  is  not  meet  for  God  to  have  children. 
No  one  in  Heaven  and  on  Earth  shall  approach  the  Merciful  otherwise 
than  as  His  servant." l  .  .  . 

This  is  the  first  Hejrah,  the  first  triumph  of  the  Faith. 
But  meanwhile  Mohammed  himself  had  recanted,  apostatised 
— twice.  While  the  small  band  were  proclaiming  the  purity 
of  his  Kevelation  before  the  Negus  of  Abyssinia,  Mohammed 
had  gone  to  the  Kaaba  and  in  his  sorely  embittered  state  of 
mind,  finding  himself  alienated  from  everybody,  in  the  midst 
of  an  absolutely  hopeless,  almost  single-handed  struggle, 
invoked,  before  the  assembled  Koreish,  their  three  popular 
idols — '*  the  sublime  swans,"  whose  intercession  might  be 
sought.  The  Assembly  were  delighted,  and,  though  they 
despised  his  feebleness,  they  yet  wished  to  put  an  end  to 
the  unseemly  strife,  and  forthwith  declared  their  readiness 
to  believe  in  his  doctrine,  since  it  embraced  the  worship  of 
their  ancient  gods.  But  on  the  day  following  Mohammed 
publicly  rescinded  that  declaration.  "  The  devil  had  prompted 
him,"  he  declared  boldly,  and  bitterer  waxed  the  feud  than 
before.  But  his  mind  was,  as  we  said,  in  a  sorely  vexed  state 
at  that  time.  He  was  low  spirited,  nervous,  full  of  fear,  and 
he  was  still  ready  to  make  concessions.  To  escape  abuse  lie 
at  about  the  same  period  declared  that  he  had  been  com- 
manded to  permit  the  continuation  of  sacrifices  to  the  idols  ; 
and  then  he  repented  again,  and  verses  expressive  of  his 
contrition  at  his  momentary  weakness  came  and  comforted 


1  Compare  above,  p.  88. 


ISLAM. 

him  in  the  midst  of  the  new  troubles  caused  by  his  recanta- 
tion. At  that  time  it  was  also  that  great  comfort  came  to- 
him  in  the  conversion  of  those  two :  Hamza,  called  the  Lion 
of  God,  and  Omar,  the  Paul  of  Islam,  whilom  Mohammed's- 
bitterest  adversary,  who  had  entered  the  house  of  Mohammed 
girded  with  his  sword,  resolved  on  slaying  him,  and  who 
returned  a  Muslim,  the  most  zealous  apostle  of  the  faith,, 
its  most  valiant  defender  and  mainstay.  Among  the  twelve 
of  whom  we  spoke,  Abu  Bakr  and  Hamza  became  the  prin- 
cipal heads  and  mainsprings  of  young  Islam. 

And  now  the  breach  in  the  clan  was  completed.  The 
whole  family  of  Mohammed,  the  Hashimites,  were  excom- 
municated. Great  hardships  ensued  for  both  sides  for  the 
space  of  three  years,  until  when  both  were  anxious  to  remove 
the  excommunication,  the  document  itself  was  found  to  have 
been  destroyed  by  worms — all  but  the  name  of  God  with 
which  it  commenced.  While  thus,  on  the  one  hand,  Mo- 
hammed's star  seemed  in  the  ascendant,  he  having  forced, 
if  not  recognition,  at  any  rate  toleration,  a  bitter  grief  befel 
him.  Chadija,  sixty-five  years  of  age,  died ;  shortly  after 
his  protector,  Abu  Talib :  and,  as  if  to  fill  the  cup  of  his 
misery,  he  now  became  aware  also  that  he  was  a  beggar. 
As  long  as  Chadija  lived  she  provided  for  him,  leaving  him 
to  believe  in  his  prosperity.  For  he  was  chiefly  occupied 
with  his  Eevelations,  and  with  going  about  preaching  to  the 
caravans,  the  pilgrims,  the  people,  at  the  fairs.  And  behind 
him  went  his  other  uncle,  like  a  grim  shadow,  and  when  he 
exhorted  the  people  to  repeat  after  him :  "  There  is  no  God 
but  Allah,"  and  promised  that  they  would  all  be  kings  if 
they  did — as  indeed  they  became  ;  Abu  Lahab  "  the  squinter," 
with  his  two  black  side-curls,  would  mock  at  him,  call  him 
a  liar  and  a  Sabian.  And  the  people  mocked  after  him, 
and  drove  him  away,  and  said  "  Surely  your  own  kinsfolk 
must  know  best  what  sort  of  a  prophet  you  be."  This  Abu 
Lahab  now  had  to  stand  forward,  and  as  kinsman  to  take 
upon  himself  the  galling  charge  of  protecting  Mohammed, 
whom  he  loathed.  Abu  Talib  had  resisted  on  his  death-bed 
the  entreaties  both  of  Mohammed  and  of  the  Koreish — the 


110  ISLAM. 

-one  trying  to  induce  him  to  embrace  Islam,  the  others  to 
give  up  his  nephew.  He  did  neither,  and  thus  left  the 
matter  where  it  was.  But  Mohammed  felt  the  awkwardness 
.and  danger  of  his  position  as  the  protected  of  his  great  foe 
very  keenly,  and  he  resolved  to  turn  away  from  the  place  of 
his  birth,  even  as  Abraham  had  done,  and  Moses,  and  other 
prophets,  and  try  to  gain  a  hearing  elsewhere.  He  accord- 
ingly went  to  Tayif,  within  three  days'  journey  of  Mecca,  but 
he  was  unsuccessful.  They  hinted  that  his  life  would  not  be 
safe  among  them.  The  rabble  hooted  and  pelted  him  with 
stones.  He  returned  with  a  sad  heart.  On  his  road  he 
stopped,  and  preached.  And  as  whilom  the  stones  had  said 
Amen  to  the  blind  Saint's  sermon,  so  now,  legend  says,  the 
Jin  listened  to  his  words,  as  men  would  not  hear  him.  And 
when  Zaid,  who  went  with  him,  asked  him  how  he  dared  to 
return  to  the  Koreish,  he  replied,  "  God  will  find  means 
to  protect  His  religion  and  His  prophet." 

And  in  the  midst  of  these  vicissitudes  the  event  happened 
without  which  Mohammedanism  would  never  have  been  heard 
of,  save  as  one  of  the  thousand  outbreaks  of  sectarianism. 

Medina,  then  Yathrib,  was  inhabited  by  a  great  number 
of  Jews.  They  had,  as  mentioned  before,  an  academy,  where 
both  Halachah  and  Haggadah  were  expounded,  though  very 
unostentatiously.  They  lived  in  peace  and  friendship  with 
their  neighbours,  but  had  often  religious  conversations  with 
them,  in  which  the  idolaters  fared  badly  enough.  With 
ieenness  of  intellect,  with  sudden  sparks  of  esprit,  with  all 
the  arts  of  casuistry,  they  showed  them  the  inanity  of  their 
form  of  belief.  They  further,  as  the  keepers  of  holy  books, 
told  them  such  legends  and  tales  about  their  common  an- 
cestor Abraham,  their  common  kinsman  Ishmael,  and  all 
that  befel  those  before,  and  those  after  them,  that  their 
imagination  was  kindled,  their  heart  moved,  their  intellect 
fired,  and  that  secretly  they  could  not  but  agree  to  the  mental 
and  religious  superiority  of  these  their  neighbours.  But  their 
Arab  pride  would  not  yield ;  and  when  they  openly  denied 
this  superiority  of  Faith,  the  Jews  would  tell  them  that  their 
Messiah  would  come  and  punish  them  for  their  unbelief, 


ISLAM.  Ill 

even  as  the  unbelief  of  the  legendary  aborigines  who  had 
lived  there  before  them  had  been  punished. 

When  the  few  pilgrims  who  had  patiently  listened  to 
Mohammed,  at  his  many  preachings,  brought  baek  the 
strange  tidings  to  Medina  that  a  certain  man  of  good  family 
had  publicly  renounced  the  old  gods,  and  had  spoken  of  the 
God  of  Abraham,  and  of  his  mission  to  convert  his  brethren 
to  him,  not  a  Jew,  not  preaching  Judaism,  but  an  Arab,  a 
Gentile  like  themselves,  a  man  of  their  own  kith  and  kin, 
a  man  who  had  gradually  acquired  a  certain  position  and 
following  in  spite  of  all  attacks  and  hindrances,  it  struck 
some  of  the  advanced  and  far-seeing  men  of  that  city,  that 
this  was  an  opportunity  not  to  be  lost.  If  their  people,  "in 
whom  more  dissension  was  to  be  found  than  in  any  other  on 
the  face  of  the  earth,"  could  be  united  by  one  pure  faith, 
which  was  emphatically  their  own,  and  which,  though  ac- 
knowledging some  of  the  fundamental  truths  of  Judaism,  did 
not  acknowledge  Judaism  itself,  it  would  be  a  vast  achieve- 
ment ;  and  if,  further,  they  would  acknowledge  the  coming 
man,  the  Messiah,  with  whom  they  had  been  threatened  by 
the  Jews,  before  even  these  knew  of  him,  they  would  gain 
a  doubly  brilliant  victory.  And  they  went  to  Mohammed 
secretly  as  a  deputation,  and  told  him  that  if  he  were  capable 
of  creating  that  union,  religious  and  political,  which  was 
needed,  they  would  acknowledge  him  to  be  the  foretold 
prophet,  and  "  the  greatest  man  that  ever  lived." 

Mohammed  then  recited  to  them  a  brief  summary  of  the 
commandments — to  worship  but  One  God,  not  to  steal,  not 
to  commit  adultery,  not  to  kill  their  children,  not  to  slander, 
and  to  obey  his  authority  in  things  "  right  and  just,"  which 
they  repeated  after  him.  This  is  called  the  women's  vow, 
because  the  same  points  were  afterwards  repeated  for  the 
benefit  of  the  women  in  the  Koran,  and  because  there  was 
no  mention  of  fighting  for  the  faith  in  this  formula. 

Shortly  after  this  a  solemn  and  secret  compact  was  entered 
into  between  another  influential  deputation  from  Medina  and 
himself :  in  the  stillness  of  night,  "  so  that  the  sleeper  should 
not  be  awakened,  and  the  absent  not  be  waited  for."  Here 


112  ISLAM. 

he  more  fully  declared  bis  faith.  There  are,  he  told  them,, 
many  forms  of  Islam  or  Monotheism;  and  each  takes  a 
different  kind  of  worship  or  outer  garment.  The  real  points 
consist  of  the  belief  in  the  Kesurrection,  in  the  Day  of 
Judgment,  and,  above  all,  unconditional  faith  in  one  only 
God,  Allah,  unto  whom  utter  submission  is  due,  and  who 
alone  is  to  be  feared  and  worshipped.  Other  essential  points 
are  consistency  in  misfortune,  prayer,  and  charity. 

Whereupon  they  swore  allegiance  into  his  hands.  This 
over,  he  selected  twelve  men  among  them — Jesus  had  chosen 
twelve  Apostles,  and  Moses  his  elders  of  the  tribes  of  Israel, 
he  said  —  and  exhorted  those  who  had  not  been  chosen, 
not  to  be  angry  in  their  hearts,  inasmuch  as  not  he  but 
Gabriel  had  determined  the  choice.  These  were  the  twelve 
"Bishops"  (Nakib),  while  the  other  men  of  Medina  are- 
called  "  Aids  "  (Ansar). 

Secretly  as  these  things  had  been  done,  they  soon  became 
known  in  Mecca,  and  now  not  a  moment  was  to  be  lost.  The 
Koreish  could  no  longer  brook  this ;  Mohammed's  folly  had 
become  dangerous.  About  one  hundred  families  of  influence 
in  Mecca,  who  believed  in  the  Prophet,  silently  disappeared, 
by  twos,  and  threes,  and  fours,  and  went  to  Medina,  where 
they  were  received  with  enthusiasm.  Entire  quarters  of  the 
city  thus  became  deserted,  and  Otba,  at  the  sight  of  these 
vacant  abodes,  once  teeming  with  life,  "  sighed  heavily,"  and 
recited  the  old  verse :  "  Every  dwelling-place,  even  if  it  have 
been  blessed  "ever  so  long,  at  last  will  become  a  prey  to  wind 
and  woe."  ..."  And,"  he  bitterly  added,  "  all  this  is  the 
work  of  our  noble  nephew,  who  hath  scattered  our  assem- 
blies, ruined  our  affairs,  and  created  dissension  among  us." 
The  position  now  grew  day  by  day  more  embarrassing.  A 
blow  had  to  be  struck.  Still  Mohammed  was  in  Mecca,  he, 
Ali,  and  Abu  Bakr.  An  assembly  of  the  Koreish  met  in  all 
despatch  at  the  town-hall,  and  some  chiefs  of  other  clans 
were  invited  to  attend.  The  matter  had  become  a  question 
for  the  commonwealth,  not  for  a  tribe. — And  the  Devil  also 
came,  according  to  the  legend,  in  the  guise  of  a  venerable 
sheikh.  Stormy  was  the  meeting,  for  the  men  began  to  be 


ISLAM.  113 

afraid.  Imprisonment  for  life,  perpetual  exile,  and  finally 
death,  were  proposed.  It  is  for  this  that  Satan  is  wanted  by 
the  legend.  No  Arab  would  have  counselled  death  for  Mo- 
hammed. The  last  proposal  was  accepted ;  its  execution 
deferred  to  the  first  dark  night.  A  number  of  noble  youths 
were  to  do  the  bloody  deed.  Meanwhile  they  watched  his 
house  to  prevent  his  escape. 

But  meanwhile,  also,  "  the  angel  Gabriel "  had  told  Mo- 
hammed what  his  enemies  had  planned  against  him.  And 
he  put  his  own  green  garment  upon  Ali,  bade  him  lie  on 
his  own  bed,  and  escaped,  as  David  had  escaped,  through 
the  window.  A  price  was  set  upon  his  head.  Abu  Bakr,  the 
"  sole  companion,"  was  with  him.  They  hid  in  a  cave  in 
ihe  direction  opposite  from  that  leading  to  Medina,  on  Mount 
Thaur.  A  spider  wove  his  web  over  the  mouth  of  the  cave, 
relate  the  traditions.  Be  it  observed,  by  the  way,  that  even 
this  spider  and  web  belong  to  the  Haggadah,  and  are  found 
in  the  Targuni  to  the  ninety-fifth  Psalm,  where  David  is,  by 
these  means,  hidden  from  his  enemies.  Two  wild  pigeons 
laid  their  eggs  at  the  entrance  of  the  cave,  so  that  the 
pursuers  were  convinced  that  none  could  have  entered  it  for 
many  a  long  day ;  and  the  pigeons  were  blessed  ever  after 
and  made  sacred  within  the  Holy  Territory.  Once  or  twice 
dange.1*  was  nigh,  and  Abu  Bakr  began  to  fear.  "  They  were 
but  two,"  he  said.  "  Nay,"  Mohammed  said,  "  we  are  three ; 
God  is  with  us."  And  He  was  with  them.  It  was  a  hot  day 
in  September,  622,  when  Mohammed  entered  Yathrib,  from 
that  time  forth  honoured  by  the  name  of  Medinat  An-Nabi, 
the  City  of  the  Prophet,  at  noon : — ten,  thirteen,  or  fifteen 
}rears  (the  traditions  vary)  after  his  assumption  of  the  sacred 
office.  This  is  the  Hejrah,  or  Mohammedan  Era,  which 
dates  from,  the  first  month  of  the  first  lunar  year  after  the 
Prophet's  entry  into  the  city.  A  Jew  watching  on  a  tower 
espied  him  first,  in  order  that  there  might  be  fulfilled  the 
words  of  the  Koran,  "The  Jews  know  him  better  than 
they  know  their  own  children."  Before  entering  the  gate 
he  alighted  from  his  camel  and  prayed. 

From  that  time  forth  Mohammed's  life,  hitherto  obscure 

I 


ISLAM. 

and  dark,  stands  out  in  its  minutest  details.  He  now  is- 
judge,  lawgiver,  king ;  even  to  the  day  of  his  death.  We 
shall  leave  our  readers  to  follow  out  the  minutiaa  of  his  life- 
in  any  of  the  biographies  at  their  hand,  which,  from  this 
period  forth,  no  longer  differ  in  any  essential  point. 

But  here  we  turn  at  once  to  that  period  of  his  open  dis- 
sensions with  the  Jews,  who,  as  we  said  already,  formed  a 
very  influential  section  at  Medina.  He  had  by  degrees  come 
to  sanction  and  adopt  as  much  of  their  dogmas,  their  legends,, 
their  ceremonies,  as  ever  was  compatible  with  his  mission  as 
a  Prophet  of  the  Arabs,  and  one  who,  barring  the  funda- 
mental dogma  of  the  Sonship,  wished  to  conciliate  also  the 
Christians.  He  constantly  refers  to  the  testimony  of  the 
Jews,  calls  them  the  first  receivers  of  the  Law,  and  not 
merely  in  such  matters  as  turning  in  prayer  towards  Jeru- 
salem, instead  of  the  national  sanctuary,  the  Kaaba,  he  had 
followed  them — nay,  at  Medina  he  even  adopted  the  Day  of 
Atonement,  date,  name,  and  all.  All  he  wanted  in  return 
was  that  they  should  acknowledge  him  as  the  Prophet  of  the 
Gentiles  ( Ummi),  and  testify  to  his  mission.  But  the  veil 
had  suddenly  been  torn  from  the  eyes  of  these  Jews.  If  they 
had  thought  him  a  meet  instrument  to  convert  all  Arabia  to 
Judaism,  and  had  eagerly  fostered  and  encouraged  him,  had 
instructed  him  in  law  and  legend,  and  had  caused  him  to 
believe  in  himself  and  his  mission,  they  of  a  sudden  became 
aware  that  their  supposed  tool  had  become  a  thing  of  ever- 
growing power ;  and  they  had  recourse  to  the  most  danger- 
ous arms  imaginable  for  laying  that  ghost  which  they  had 
helped  to  raise.  They  laughed  at  him  publicly.  They  told 
stories  of  how  he  came  by  his  "  Kevelations."  They  who  had 
been  so  anxious  to  inure  him  into  the  Midrash,  challenged 
him  by  silly  questions  on  Haggadistic  lore, — to  which  he  was 
imprudent  enough  to  give  serious  replies, — to  prove  his  Mes- 
siahship,  with  which  they  unceasingly  taunted  him.  They 
produced  the  Bible,  and  showed  how  different  the  tales  he 
told  of  the  patriarchs  and  others  were  from  those  contained 
in  that  book :  they  who  had  begotten  this  Haggadistic  guise 
themselves.  Of  course  the  stories  did  not  agree,  and  even 


ISLAM.  115 

Christians  (Omayyali  and  others)  testified  to  that  fact.  What 
remained  for  Mohammed  but  to  declare  that,  in  those  in- 
stances, both  Jews  and  Christians  had  falsified  their  books  ?  or 
that  they  did  not  understand  them — applying  to  them  the 
rabbinical  designation  of  certain  scholars :  that  though  they 
had  the  books,  they  were  but  "  as  asses  laden  with  them," 
and  comprehended  not  their  contents ;  or  that  they  gave  out 
foolish  stories  to  be  the  Book  itself.  He  now  declared  that, 
"  of  all  men,  Jews  and  Idolaters  hate  the  Muslims  most." 
And,  in  truth,  when  asked  whether  they  preferred  Moham- 
med's teaching  or  Idolatry,  they  would  reply — as  their  an- 
cestors had  done  centuries  before — "  Idolatry : — since  idola- 
ters did  not  know  any  better,  whilst  there  were  those  who 
knowingly  perverted  the  pure  doctrine,  and  sowed  strife  and 
dissension  between  Israel  and  their  Father  which  is  in 
Heaven."  Some  Jewish  fanatics  even  attempted  his  life — 
one,  innocently  enough,  by  witchcraft ;  another,  by  the  more 
earnest  missile  of  a  stone.  They  wrote  satires  and  squibs 
upon  him,  men  and  women.  There  was  no  end  to  their  provo- 
cations. They  mispronounced  his  Koranic  words — "  twisting 
their  tongues  " — so  as  to  give  them  an  offensive  meaning. 
Their  "  look  down  upon  us,"  sounded  like  "0  our  wicked  one." 
For  "  forgiveness  "  they  said  "  sin ; "  for  "  peace  upon  thee  " 
— "  contempt  upon  thee,"  and  the  like.  They  mocked  at  his 
expression  of  "  giving  God  a  good  loan  " — "  we  being  rich 
and  He  poor !"  they  said — evidently  forgetting  the  similar  ex- 
pressions of  the  Mishnah  itself,  which  speaks  of  certain  good 
deeds l  as  bringing  interest  in  this  world,  while  the  capital  is 
reserved  for  the  next.  And  the  inevitable  happened.  The 
breach  came  to  pass,  and  there  was  hatred  even  unto  death 
on  both  sides.  It  was  too  late  to  substitute  another  faith, 
other  doctrines,  other  legends,  even  had  they  been  at  hand. 
But  as  much  as  could  be  done  without  endangering  the  whole 
structure,  to  show  the  irreconcilable  breach,  was  done  now. 


1  Such  as  reverence  for  father  and 
mother,  charity,  early  application  to 
study,  hospitality,  doing  the  last 


honours  to  the  dead,  promoting  peace 
between  man  and  his  neighbour.    See 


page  34. 


I  2 


116  ISLAM. 

The  faithful  were  no  longer  to  turn  their  faces  towards  Jeru- 
salem, but  towards  Mecca.  Friday  was  made  the  day  of  rest, 
and  the  call  to  prayer  was  introduced  as  a  supposed  protest 
against  the  trumpet  of  the  synagogue,  though  the  trumpet 
was  scarcely  ever  used  for  the  purpose  of  the  call  to  prayer. 
The  Jews  were  not  to  be  saluted  in  the  streets ;  the  faithful 
were  to  abstain  from  eating  with  them ;  they  are  declared 
beyond  the  pale — and  bitterly  had  they  to  rue  their  lost 
game. 

In  the  first  year  of  the  Hejrah  Mohammed  proclaimed  war 
against  the  enemies  of  the  faith.  At  Badr  the  Muslims  first 
stood  face  to  face  with  the  Meccans,  and  routed  them,  though 
but  316  against  600.  The  Koreish  and  certain  Jewish  tribes 
were  the  next  object  of  warfare.  Six  years  after  the  Flight 
he  proclaimed  a  general  pilgrimage  to  Mecca.  Its  inhabi- 
tants though  prohibiting  this,  concluded  a  peace  with  him, 
whereby  he  was  recognised  as  a  belligerent,  and  the  pilgrim- 
age was  carried  out  the  very  next  year.  Next  other  Jewish 
tribes  had  to  feel  his  iron  rod,  whilst  he  nearly  lost  his  life  at 
the  hands  of  a  Jewess,  another  Judith,  who  tried  to  poison 
him,  and,  when  charged  with  the  crime,  said  that  she  had 
only  wished  to  see  whether  Mohammed  really  was  a  Prophet, 
and  now  she  was  convinced  of  it.  She  thus  saved  her  own 
life;  but  the  poison  worked  on,  and  in  his  dying  hour  Mo- 
hammed spoke  of  that  poison  "  cutting  his  heart  strings." 
His  missionaries  now  sought  a  larger  sphere  than  Arabia. 
Letters  were  sent  by  him.  to  Heraclius,  to  the  Governor  of 
Egypt,  to  Abyssinia,  to  Chosroes  II..,  to  Amra  the  Ghas- 
sanide.  The  latter  resented  this  as  an  insult,  executed  the 
messenger,  and  the  first  war  between  Islam  and  Christianity 
broke  out.  Islam  was  beaten.  Mecca  at  these  news  rose 
anew,  threw  off  the  mask  of  friendship,  and  broke  the  alli- 
ance. Whereupon  Mohammed  marched  of  a  sudden  10,000 
men  strong  upon  them  before  they  had  time  for  any  prepa- 
ration, took  Mecca  by  storm,  and  was  publicly  acknowledged 
chief  and  prophet.  More  strife  and  more,  chiefly  minor, 
contests  followed,  in  which  he  was  more  or  less  victorious. 
In  the  year  ten  of  the  Hejrah  he  undertook  his  last  solemn 


ISLAM.  117 

pilgrimage  to  Mecca,  with,  at  least  40,000  Muslims,  and 
there  on  Mount  Arafat  blessed  them,  like  Moses,  and  re- 
peated his  last  exhortations  ;  chiefly  telling  them  to  protect 
the  weak,  the  poor,  and  the  women,  and  to  abstain  from 
usury. 

Once  again  he  thought  of  war.  He  planned  a  huge  expe- 
dition against  the  Greeks;  but  he  felt  death  approaching. 
One  night,  at  midnight,  he  went  to  the  cemetery  of  Medina, 
and  prayed  and  wept  upon  the  tombs,  and  asked  God's  bless- 
ing for  his  "  companions  resting  in  peace."  Next  day  he 
went  to  the  mosque  as  usual,  ascended  the  pulpit,  and  com- 
menced his  exhortation  with  these  words:  "  There  was  once 
a  servant  unto  whom  God  had  given  the  option  of  whatever 
worldly  goods  he  would  desire,  or  the  rewards  that  are  near 
God;  and  he  chose  those -which  are  near  God."  And  Abu 
Bakr,  hearing  these  words,  wept  and  said,  "  May  our  fathers 
and  mothers,  our  lives  and  our  goods,  be  a  sacrifice  for  you, 
O  messenger  of  God."  And  the  people  marvelled  at  these 
words.  They  wist  not  that  the  prophet  spoke  of  his  near 
death,  but  Abu  Bakr  knew.  For  a  few  more  days  Moham- 
med went  about  as  usual ;  but  terrible  headaches,  accom- 
panied by  feverish  symptoms,  soon  forced  him  to  seek  rest. 
He  chose  Ayisha's  house  close  to  the  mosque,  and  there  took 
part  as  long  as  he  could  in  public  prayers.  For  the  last  time 
he  addressed  the  faithful,  asking  them,  like  Moses,  whether 
he  had  wronged  any  one,  or  whether  he  owed  aught  to  any 
one.  To  round  the  story  off  right  realistically,  there  was  an 
imbecile  present  who  claimed  certain  unpaid  pennies ;  which 
were  immediately  refunded  to  him,  though  not  without  a 
bitter  word.  He  then  read  passages  from  the  Koran  pre- 
paring them  for  his  death,  and  exhorted  them  to  keep  peace 
among  themselves.  Never  after  that  hour  did  he  ascend  the 
pulpit,  says  the  tradition,  "  till  the  day  of  the  Resurrection." 
Whether  he  intended  to  appoint  a  successor — Mosaylima, 
perhaps,  the  pseudo-prophet,  as  Sprenger  suggests — or  not, 
must  always  remain  a  mystery.  It  is  well  known  that  the 
writing-materials  for  which  he  had  asked  were  not  given  to 
him.  Perhaps  they  did  think  him  delirious,  as  they  said. 


118  ISLAM. 

Some  medicine  was  given  to  him,  accompanied  by  certain 
superstitious  rites  and  formulas.  He  protested  with  horror 
when  he  became  aware  of  this.  He  wandered;  somewhat 
of  Heaven  and  Angels  were  his  last  words — "  Denizens  of 
Heaven  .  .  .  Sons  of  Abraham  .  .  .  prophets  .  .  .  they  fall 
down,  weeping,  glorifying  His  Majesty.  .  .  ."  Ayisha,  in 
whose  lap  his  head  rested,  felt  it  growing  heavy  and  heavier : 
she  looked  into  his  face,  saw  his  eyes  gazing  upwards,  and 
heard  him  murmuring :  "  No,  the  companions  above  ...  in 
Paradise."  She  then  took  his  hand  in  hers,  praying.  When 
she  let  it  sink,  it  was  cold  and  dead.  This  happened  about 
noon  of  Monday  (12th  or  llth)  of  the  third  month  in  the 
llth  year  of  the  Hejrah  (8th  June,  632).  Terrible  was  the 
distress  which  the  news  of  his  death  caused.  Many  of  the 
faithful  refused  to  believe  in  it,  and  Omar  confirmed  them  in 
their  doubt.  But  Abu  Bakr  sprang  forth,  saying,  "  Whoso- 
ever among  you  has  believed  in  Mohammed,  let  him  know 
that  Mohammed  is  dead ;  but  he  who  has  believed  in  Mo- 
hammed's God,  let  him  continue  to  serve  Him,  for  He  is  still 
alive  and  never  dies.  .  .  ." 

We  have  in  this  succinct  review  of  the  stages  through 
which  Mohammed  went,  carefully  abstained  from  pronouncing 
upon  him  ex  cathedra,  from  accusing  or  defending  him.  All 
this  has  been  done,  and  public  opinion  is  at  rest  on  the  point, 
for  instance,  of  his  marrying  many  wives,  or  committing 
wholesale  slaughter  when  an  example  had  to  be  made.  Also 
with  regard  to  his  "  cunning,"  and  "  craftiness,"  and  the  rest 
of  it.  There  is,  Mohammedans  tell  us  now,  polygamy  and 
massacre  enough  and  to  spare  in  the  Bible,  and  its  heroes  are 
in  no  wise  exempt  from  human  frailties.  Moreover,  "  far- 
sighted  prudence  and  energetic  action " — provided  always 
that  they  belong  to  the  victorious  camp — are  not  considered 
very  grave  faults.  But  we  have  also  abstained  from  adducing 
many  Koranic  passages,  however  tempting  it  was  to  substi- 
tute for  our  own  sober  account  the  glowing  words  of  "  in- 
spiration " — the  cry  out  of  the  depths  of  an  intensely  human 
heart  in  its  sore  agony — the  wail  over  the  peace  that  is  lost 
— the  exultant  bugle-call  that  proclaims  the  God-given  tri- 


ISLAM. 


119 


umph — the  yell  of  revenge,  or  the  silent  anguish,  and  the 
unheard,  the  unseen  tear  of  a  man.  These  things  do  indeed 
write  a  more  faithful  biography  than  the  acutest  historian 
will  ever  compile  out  of  the  infinite  and  infinitesimal  mosaics 
at  his  disposal. 

Mohammed  has  had  many  biographers,  from  the  Byzan- 
tines who  could  not  satisfy  their  souls  with  heaping  up 
mountains  of  silly  abuse  from  Maracci  and  Prideaux — the 
former  of  whom  has,  not  without  some  show  of  reason,  been 
accused  of  being  a  secret  believer,  while  the  latter  wishes  to 
stop  by  his  biography,  "  the  great  prevailing  infidelity  in  the 
present  age,"  more  especially  as  he  has  reason  to  fear  that 
•"  wrath  hath  some  time  gone  forth  from  the  Lord,"  and  that 
the  "  Wicked  One  may,  by  some  other  such  instrument,  over- 
whelm us  with  foulest  delusions  " — to  those  great  authorities, 
-Sprenger,  Muir,  Noldeke,  Weil,  Amari.  The  work  of  the 
first  of  these  we  have  placed  at  the  head  of  our  paper  because 
it  is  the  most  comprehensive,  the  most  exhaustive,  the  most 
learned  of  all,  because,  more  than  any  of  the  others,  it  does, 
by  bringing  all  the  material  bodily  before  the  reader,  enable 
him  to  form  his  own  judgment.  Next  to  him  in  fulness  and 
genuineness  of  matter,  though  not  in  genius  perhaps,  stands, 
to  our  thinking,  Muir;  only  that  a  certain  preconceived 
notion  anent  Satan  seems  to  have  taken  somewhat  too  firm  a 
hold  upon  his  mind.  Both  Muir  and  Sprenger  have  drunk 
out  of  the  fulness  of  the  East  in  the  East,  spending  part  of 
their  lives  in  research  on  Indian  and  Mohammedan  soil. 
Weil,  Amari,  Noldeke,1  have  earned  the  first  places  among 
Koranic  investigators  in  Europe,  while  Lane,  that  most 
illustrious  master  of  Arab  lexicography,  has,  both  in  his 
classical  Notes  on  the  "Arabian  Nights  "  and  in  his  "  Modern 
Egyptians,"  thrown  out  most  precious  hints  on  the  subject. 
And  those  that  have  written  his  life  have  all  written  it  out 
of  his  book,  the  Koran>  and  its  complement  the  Sunnah,  and 
-each  has  written  it  differently. 


1  "We  may  on  another  occasion  enter 
more  fully  upon  the  individual  merits 
•of  their  works,  and  those  of  many 


others  in  this  large  field:  for  the 
present,  a  bare  reference  to  them  must 
suffice. 


120  ISLAM. 

The  Koran  is  a  wonderful  book  in  many  respects,  but 
chiefly  in  this,  that  it  has  no  real  beginning,  middle,  or  end. 
Mohammed's  mind  is  best  portrayed  here.  It  was  not  a 
well-regulated  mind.  Weil,  in  touching  terms,  almost  appeal's 
to  the  shadow  of  Mohammed  to  come  and  enlighten  him  as- 
to  what  he  said,  when  he  said  it,  how  he  said  it.  He  cannot 
forgive  him,  he  states  at  the  commencement  of  his  "  Intro- 
duction," that  he  did  not  put  everything  clearly  and  properly 
in  order  before  his  death — even  as  a  man  sends  his  ie  copy  'r 
to  the  printers.  From  date-leaves  and  tablets  of  white  stone, 
from  shoulder-bones  and  bits  of  parchment,  thrown  promiscu- 
ously into  a  box,  and  from  "  the  breasts  of  men,"  was  the  first 
edition  of  the  Koran  prepared,  one  year  after  the  prophet's 
death,  and  the  single  chapters  were  arranged  according  to 
their  respective  lengths:  organ-pipe  fashion — and  not  even 
that  accurately.  And  Mohammed's  book  is  not  even  as  the- 
Pentateuch,  according  to  the  Documentary  Theory.  There 
are  not  several  accounts  of  the  same  or  different  events 
vaguely  put  together.  Nor  is  it  even  like  the  Talmud,  which, 
though  apparently  leading  us  by  the  Ariaclne-thread  of  the 
Mishnah  through  its  labyrinths,  yet  every  now  and  then 
plunges  us  into  pathless  wildernesses  of  cave  and  vault; 
through  which  ever  and  anon  streams  in  the  golden  light 
of  day,  showing  the  wise  aim  and  plan  of  their  tortuous 
windings.  But  in  the  Koranic  structure  there  is  no  cunning, 
no  special  purpose,  and,  indeed,  you  may  begin  at  every  page 
and  end  at  every  page.  Unless  one  should  prefer  to  read  it 
from  beginning  to  end — and  we  warrant  that,  as  it  now 
stands,  no  one  will  easily  perform  that  feat,  unless  he  be  a 
pious  Muslim,  or,  perchance,  makes  it  his  Arabic  text-book. 
Hence  also  not  one  of  these  savans  agrees  about  the  succes- 
sion of  the  Chapters.  There  is  certainly  a  vast  amount  of 
truth  or  probability  on  the  side  of  some  suggestions ;  and 
Sprenger  has,  to  our  mind,  corne  nearest,  because  he  was  the 
least  fettered  by  conventionalities  of  view,  but,  son  of  the 
Alps  and  of  the  Desert,  he  set  authority  at  defiance  and 
sought  out  his  path  for  himself.  Yet  with  him,  too,  it  is 
difficult  to  agree  at  times,  according  to  the  greater  or  less 


ISLAM.  121 

sympathy  one  feels  with  his  stand-point  and  the  view  he 
takes  of  the  Prophet  himself. 

Broadly  speaking,  three  principal  divisions  may,  with 
psychological  truth,  be  established ;  the  first,  corresponding- 
to  the  period  of  early  struggles,  being  marked  by  the  higher 
poetical  flight,  by  the  deeper  appreciation  of  the  beauties  of 
nature,  in  sudden,  most  passionate,  lava-like  outbursts,  which 
seem  scarcely  to  articulate  themselves  into  words.  The  more 
prosaic  and  didactic  tone  warns  us  of  the  approach  of  man- 
hood, while  the  dogmatising,  the  sermonising,  the  reiteration, 
and  the  abandoning  of  all  Scriptural  and  Haggaclistic  help- 
mates point  to  the  secure  possession  of  power,  to  the  consum- 
mation and  completion  of  the  mission.  But  these  divisions 
must  not  be  relied  upon  too  securely.  There  rings  through 
what  may  fairly  be  considered  some  of  the  very  last  Revela- 
tions ever  and  anon  the  old  wild  cry  of  doubt  and  despair ; 
the  sermon  turns  abruptly  into  a  glowing  vision ;  a  sudden 
rhapsody  inappropriately  follows  a  small  dogmatic  disqui- 
sition, or  a  curse  fiery  and  yelling  as  any  of  the  hottest  days 
is  hurled  upon  some  unbeliever's  doomed  head;  while  the 
very  first  utterances  at  times  exhibit  the  theorising,  reflecting, 
arguing  tendencies  of  ripe  old  age. 

And  it  is  exactly  in  these  transitions,  quick  and  sudden  as 
lightning,  that  one  of  the  great  charms  of  the  book,  as  it 
now  stands,  consists :  well  might  Goethe  say  that  "  as 
often  as  we  approach  it,  it  always  proves  repulsive  anew ; 
gradually,  however,  it  attracts,  it  astonishes,  and,  in  the  end, 
forces  into  admiration."  The  Koran,  moreover,  suffers  more 
than  any  other  book  we  could  think  of  by  a  translation, 
however  masterly.  If  anywhere,  it  is  here  that  the  summum 
jus  summa  injuria  holds  good.  What  makes  the  Talmud  so 
particularly  delightful  is  this  peculiar  fact,  that  whenever 
jurisprudence  with  its  thousand  technicalities  and  uncouth 
terms  is  out  of  the  question,  it  becomes  easy,  translucent, 
and  clear  to  the  merest  beginner.  The  pathetic  naivete  of 
its  diction,  and  the  evident  pains  it  takes  to  make  all  its 
sayings  household  words,  is  something  for  which  we  cannot 
bo  too  grateful.  Hence  also  the  fact  that  these  words  in 


122  ISLAM. 

their  wisdom  and  grace  must  needs  find  an  echo  in  every 
true  heart,  if  told  exactly  as  they  stand,  without  attempt 
to  colour  them.  The  grandeur  of  the  Koran,  on  the  other 
hand,  consists,  its  contents  apart,  in  its  diction.  We  cannot 
explain  the  peculiarly  dignified,  impressive,  sonorous  nature 
•of  Semitic  sound  and  parlance ;  its  sesquipedalia  verba,  with 
their  crowd  of  prefixes  and  affixes,  each  of  them  affirming 
its  own  position,  while  consciously  bearing  upon  and  influ- 
encing the  central  root — which  they  envelop  like  a  garment 
of  many  folds,  or  as  chosen  courtiers  move  round  the  anointed 
person  of  the  King. 

May  be,  some  stray  reader  remembers  a  certain  thrill  on 
waking  suddenly  in  the  middle  of  his  first  night  on  Eastern 
soil — waking,  as  it  were,  from  dream  into  dream.  For  there 
came  a  voice,  solitary,  sweet,  sonorous,  floating  from  on  high 
through  the  moonlight  stillness  —  the  voice  of  the  blind 
Mueddin,  singing  the  Ulah,  or  first  Call  to  Prayer.  At  the 
sound  whereof  many  a  white  figure  would  move  silently  on 
the  low  roofs,  and  not  merely,  like  the  palms  and  cypresses 
around,  bow  his  head,  but  prostrate,  and  bend  his  knees.  And 
the  sounds  went  and  came,  "Allalm  Akbar  .  .  .  .  Prayer 
is  better  than  sleep  ....  There  is  no  God  but  He  .... 
He  giveth  life,  and  He  dieth  not  ....  Oh !  thou  Bountiful 
....  Thy  mercy  ceaseth  not  ....  My  sins  are  great, 
greater  is  Thy  mercy  ....  I  extol  his  perfection  .... 
Allahu  Akbar !  " — and  this  reader  may  have  a  vague  notion 
of  Arabic  and  Koranic  sound,  one  which  he  will  never  forget. 

But  the  Koran  is  sui  generis,  though  its  contents  be  often 
but  the  old  wine  in  new  bottles,  and  its  form  strikingly 
resembling  that  of  pre-Islamic  poetry,  which  it  condemns. 
It  is  rhythmical,  rhymed,  condescends  to  word-plays,  and 
indulges  —  and  in  one  place  to  an  appalling  degree  —  in 
refrains.  As  usual,  the  rhyme  —  the  swaddling  clothes  of 
unborn  thought  —  here  too  seems  to  run  away  at  times,  if 
not  with  the  sense,  at  all  events  with  the  numbers.  Yet 
not  far ;  only  that  for  the  sake  of  the  soft  dual  termination 
certain  gardens  and  fountains  and  fruits  are  doubled :  whilst 
on  the  other  hand  a  lofty  contempt  for  this  thraldom  is 


ISLAM.  123 

shown  by  m  being  made  to  answer  to  n,  I  to  r,  and  so  forth. 
Yet  here,  as  in  all  these  critical  exoteric  questions,  we  are 
treading  on  very  dangerous  ground,  and  we  shall  content 
ourselves  with  mentioning  that  there  are  at  least  three  prin- 
cipal schools  at  variance  on  the  very  question  whether  the 
Koran  is  rhymed  throughout:  one  affirming  it,  the  other 
denying  it,  and  the  third  taking  a  middle  course. 

We  reserve  all  that  we  have  to  say  on  the  ^uter  or  critical 
aspect  of  the  Koran  for  the  present;  the  scientific  terms  on 
this  field :  rules,  divisions,  and  subdivisions,  most  minute  and 
manifold,  and  the  entire  Masoretic  apparatus,  with  all  the 
striking  analogies  with  the  corresponding  Jewish  labours 
that  reveal  themselves  at  every  step. 

We  turn,  in  preference,  at  once  to  the  intrinsic  portion  of 
this  strange  book  —  a  book  by  the  aid  of  which  the  Arabs 
conquered  a  world  greater  than  that  of  Alexander  the  Great, 
greater  than  that  of  Eome,  and  in  as  many  tens  of  years  as 
the  latter  had  wanted  hundreds  to  accomplish  her  conquests  ; 
by  the  aid  of  which  they,  alone  of  all  the  Shemites,  came 
to  Europe  as  kings,  whither  the  Phoenicians  had  come  as 
tradesmen,  and  the  Jews  as  fugitives  or  captives ;  came  to 
Europe  to  hold  up,  together  with  these  fugitives,  the  light 
to  Humanity — they  alone,  while  darkness  lay  around;  to 
raise  up  the  wisdom  and  knowledge  of  Hellas  from  the  dead, 
to  teach  philosophy,  medicine,  astronomy,  and  the  golden 
art  of  song  to  the  West  as  well  as  to  the  East,  to  stand  at 
the  cradle  of  modern  science,  and  to  cause  us  late  epigoni 
for  ever  to  weep  over  the  day  when  Granada  fell. 

We  said  that  there  is  a  great  likeness  between  pre-Islarnic 
poetry  (even  that  of  those  inane  "  priests  ")  and  the  Koran. 
If  Mohammed  wished  to  go  straight  to  the  heart  of  his  people, 
it  could  only  be  through  the  hallowed  means  of  poetry — the 
sole  vehicle  of  all  their  "  science,"  all  tradition,  all  religion, 
all  love,  and  all  hatred.  And,  indeed,  what  has  remained  of 
fragments  of  that  period  of  pre-Islamic  poetry  which  imme- 
diately preceded  Mohammed,  broken,  defaced,  dimmed,  as  it 
is,  by  fanaticism  and  pedantic  ignorance,  prove  it  sufficiently 
to  have  been  of  all  the  brilliant  periods  of  Arabic  literature  the 


124  ISLAM. 

most  brilliant.  There  arises  out  of  the  Harnasa,  the  Moalla- 
kat,  the  Kitab,  Al-Aghani,  nay,  out  of  the  very  chips  that  lie 
embedded  in  later  works,  such  a  freshness,  and  glory,  and 
bloom,  of  desert-song — even  as  out  of  Homer's  epics  rise  the 
glowing  spring-times  of  humanity  and  the  deep  blue  heavens 
of  Hellas — as  has  never  again  been  the  portion  of  Arab  poetry. 
Wild,  and  vast,  and  monotonous  as  the  yellow  seas  of  its 
desert  solitudes,  it  is  withal  tender,  true,  pathetic,  soul- 
subduing;  much  more  so  than  when  in  beauteous  Andalus 
the  great-grandchildren  of  these  wild  rovers  sang  of  nightly 
boatings  by  torchlight,  of  the  moon's  rays  trembling  on  the 
waves,  of  sweet  meetings  in  the  depths  of  rose-gardens,  of 
Spain's  golden  cities  and  gleaming  mosques,  and  the  far 
away  burning  desert  whence  their  fathers  came.  Those  grand 
accents  of  joy  and  sorrow,  of  love,  and  valour,  and  passion, 
of  which  but  faint  echoes  strike  on  our  ears  now,  were  full- 
toned  at  the  time  of  Mohammed ;  and  he  had  not  merely 
to  rival  the  illustrious  of  the  illustrious,  but  to  excel  them  ; 
to  appeal  to  the  superiority  of  what  he  said  and  sang  as 
a  very  sign  and  proof  of  his  mission.  And  there  were,  at 
first,  many  and  sinister  tokens  of  rivalry  and  professional 
hatred  visible,  to  which  religious  fanaticism  carried  fuel. 
Those  that  had  fallen  fighting  against  him  were  lamented 
over  in  the  most  heartrending  and  popular  dirges.  Poets  of 
his  time  said  even  as  Jehuda  Al-Hassan-Halevi,  that  great 
HebraBo- Arabic  minstrel,  did  hundreds  of  years  after  them, 
that  they  failed  to  see  anything  extraordinary  in  his  verses. 
Nay,  they  called  him  names, — a  fool,  a  madman,  a  ridiculous 
pretender  and  impostor;  they  laughed  at  the  people  of 
Medina  for  listening  to  "such  an  one."  And  these  rival- 
poets  formed  a  formidable  power.  Their  squibs  told,  while 
the  counter-satires  he  caused  to  be  written  fell  flat.  Not  even 
"sudden  visitations,"  by  which  some  of  the  worst  offenders 
were  found  struck  to  death,  stopped  the  "press."  Until 
there  came  a  revelation — "  Shall  I  declare  unto  you,"  he 
asks  in  the  Surah  called  "  the  Poets,"  "  on  whom  the  Devils 
descend  ?  They  descend  upon  every  lying  and  wicked  person 
.  .  .  most  of  them  are  liars.  And  those  who  err  follow  the 


ISLAM.  125 

steps  of  the  poets.  Seest  thou  not  how  they  rove  as  bsref't 
of  their  senses  through  every  valley  ?  "  .  .  .  Which  reminds 
us  strikingly  of  Kutayir,  a  pre-Islamic  poet,  and  the  answer 
he  gave  to  people  asking  him  "How  he  managed  when 
poetry  became  difficult  to  him?"  and  he  said,  "I  walk 
through  the  deserted  habitations  and  through  the  blooming 
greenswards ;  then  the  most  perfect  songs  become  easy,  and 
the  most  beautiful  ones  flow  naturally  " — "  roving  bereft  of 
his  senses  through  every  valley  !".... 

Mohammed  is  said  to  have  convinced  a  rival,  Lebid,  a 
poet-laureate  of  the  period,  of  his  mission,  by  reciting  to 
him  a  portion  of  the  now  second  Surah.  Unquestionably 
it  is  one  of  the  very  grandest  specimens  of  Koranic  or  Arabic 
diction,  describing  how  hypocrites  "  are  like  unto  those  who 
kindle  a  fire  without,  and  think  themselves  safe  from  dark- 
ness. But  while  it  is  at  its  biggest  blaze,  God  sends  a  wind ; 
the  flame  is  extinguished,  and  they  are  shrouded  in  dense 
night.  They  are  deaf,  and  dumb,  and  blind.  ...  Or  when 
in  darkness,  and  amidst  thunder  and  lightning,  rain-filled 
•clouds  pour  from  heaven,  they  in  terror  of  the  crash  thrust 

their  fingers  into  their  ears But  God  compasseth  the 

infidels  around The  flash  of  the  lightning  blindeth 

their  eyes — while  it  lights  up  all  things,  they  walk  in  its 
light — then  darkness  closes  in  upon  them,  and  they  stand 
rooted  to  the  ground." 

But  even  descriptions  of  this  kind,  grand  as  they  be  in 
their  own  tongue,  are  not  sufficient  to  kindle  and  preserve 
the  enthusiasm  and  the  faith  and  the  hope  of  a  nation  like 
the  Arabs,  not  for  one  generation,  but  for  a  thousand.  Not 
the  most  passionate  grandeur,  not  the  most  striking  similes, 
not  the  legends,  not  the  parables,  not  the  sweet  spell  of 
rhyme-fall  and  the  weaving  of  rhythmic  melodies,  and  all 
the  poet's  cunning  craft — but  the  kernel  of  it  all,  the  doc- 
trine, the  positive,  clear,  distinct  doctrine.  And  this  doctrine 
Mohammed  brought  before  them  in  a  thousand,  so  to  say, 
symphonic  variations,  modulated  through  the  whole  scale 
of  human  feeling.  From  prayer  to  curse,  from  despair  to 
•exultant  joy,  from  argument,  often  casuistic,  largely-spun-out 


126  ISLAM. 

argument,  to  vision,  either  in  swift,  and  sudden,  and  terrible 
transition,  or  in  repetitions  and  reiterations  —  monotonous 
and  dreary  and  insufferably  tedious  to  the  outsider — but  to 
him  alone. 

The  poets  before  him  had  sung  of  love.  One  of  the  prin- 
cipal forms  of  pre-Islamic  poetry  was,  indeed,  the  Kasida, 
which  almost  invariably  commenced  with  a  sorrowful  remem- 
brance of  her  who  had  gone  none  knew  whither,  and  the 
very  traces  of  whose  tent,  but  yesterday  gleaming  afar  in 
the  midst  of  the  wide  solitudes,  had  disappeared  overnight. 
Antara,  himself  the  hero  of  the  most  famous  novel,  sings 
of  the  ruins,  around  which  ever  hover  lovers'  thoughts,  of 
the  dwelling  of  Abla,  who  is  gone,  and  her  dwelling-place 
knows  her  not ;  it  is  now  desolate  and  silent.  Anir  Al  Kais, 
"  the  standard-bearer  of  poets,  but  on  the  way  to  hell,"  as 
Mohammed  called  him,  of  all  things  praises  his  fortune  with 
women,  chiefly  Oneisa,  and  in  brilliant,  often  Heinesque, 
verse  sings  of  the  good  things  of  this  world ;  until  his  father 
banishes  him  on  account  of  an  adventure  wherein  he,  as 
usual,  had  been  too  happy.  And  of  a  sudden,  in  the  midst 
of  a  wild  revel,  he  hears  that  his  father  has  been  slain,  and 
not  a  word  said  he.  But  higher  arid  louder  waxed  the  revel, 
and  he  drank  deep,  and  gamed  till  the  grey  dawn;  when 
he  arose  of  a  sudden,  and  swore  a  holy  oath  that  neither 
wine  nor  woman  should  soothe  his  senses  until  he  had  taken 
bloody  vengeance  for  his  father;  and  when  consulting  the 
oracle,  he  drew  an  arrow  with  the  inscription  "  Defence,"  he 
threw  it  into  the  idol's  face,  saying,  "  Wretch,  if  thy  father 
had  been  killed,  thou  wouldst  have  counselled  Vengeance, 
not  Defence." 

They  sang  of  valour  and  generosity,  of  love  and  strife,  and 
revenge,  of  their  noble  tribe  and  ancestors,  of  beautiful 
women,  "  often  even  of  those  who  did  not  exist,  so  that 
woman's  noble  fame  should  be  spread  abroad  among  kings 
and  princes,"  as  the  unavoidable  scholiast  informs  us  ;  of  the 
valiant  sword,  and  the  swift  camel,  and  the  darling  horse, 
fleeter  than  the  whirlwind's  rush.  Or  of  early  graves,  upon 
which  weeps  the  morning's  cloud,  and  the  fleeting  nature  of 


ISLAM.  127 

life,  which  conies  and  goes  as  the  waves  of  the  desert-sand,, 
and  as  the  tents  of  a  caravan,  as  a  flower  that  shoots  up  and 
dies  away — while  the  white  stars  will  rise  and  set  ever- 
lastingly, and  the  mountains  will  rear  their  heads  heaven- 
wards, and  never  grow  old.  Or  they  shoot  their  bitter 
arrows  of  satire  right  into  the  enemy's  own  soul. 

Mohammed  sang  none  of  these.  No  love-minstrelsy  his, 
not  the  joys  of  this  world,  nor  sword  nor  camel,  nor  jealousy 
or  human  vengeance,  not  the  glories  of  tribe  or  ancestor,  nor 
the  unmeaning,  swiftly  and  for  ever  extinguished  existence 
of  man,  were  his  themes.  He  preached  Islam. 

And  he  preached  it  by  rending  the  skies  above  and 
tearing  open  the  ground  below,  by  adjuring  heaven  and  hell,, 
the  living  and  the  dead.  The  Arabs  have  ever  been  pro- 
ficient in  the  art  of  swearing,  but  such  swearing  had  never 
been  heard  in  and  out  of  Arabia.  By  the  foaming  waters 
and  by  the  grim  darkness,  by  the  flaming  sun  and  the  setting 
stars,  by  Mount  Sinai  and  by  Him  who  spanned  the  firma- 
ment, by  the  human  soul  and  the  small  voice,  by  the  Kaaba 
and  by  the  Book,  by  the  Moon  and  the  dawn  and  the  angels, 
by  the  ten  nights  of  dread  mystery  and  by  the  day  of  judgment. 
That  day  of  judgment,  at  the  approach  whereof  the  earth 
shaketh,  and  the  mountains  are  scattered  into  dust,  and  the 
seas  blaze  up  in  fire,  and  the  children's  hair  grows  white 
with  anguish,  and  like  locust-swarms  the  souls  arise  out 
of  their  graves,  and  Allah  cries  to  Hell,  Art  thou  filled  full  ? 
and  Hell  cries  to  Allah,  More,  give  me  more,  .  .  .  while 
Paradise  opens  its  blissful  gates  to  the  righteous,  and  glory 
ineffable  awaits  them — both  men  and  women. 

The  kernel  and  doctrine  of  Islam  Goethe  has  found  in  the 
second  Surah,  which  begins  as  follows : — 

"  This  is  the  Book.  There  is  no  doubt  in  the  same.  A  Guidance  to 
the  righteous.  Who  believe  in  the  Unseen,  who  observe  the  Prayer,  and 
who  give  Alms  of  that  which  we  have  vouchsafed  unto  them.  And  who 
believe  in  that  which  has  been  sent  down  unto  thee — (the  Revelation) 
which  had  been  sent  down  to  those  before  thee,  and  who  believe  in  the 
Life  to  come.  They  walk  in  the  guidance  of  their  Lord,  and  they  are 
the  blessed.  As  to  them  who  believe  not— it  is  indifferent  to  them 
whether  thou  exhortest  them  or  not  exhortest  them.  They  will  not 


128  ISLAM. 

believe.  Sealed  hath  Allah  their  hearts  and  their  ears,  and  over  their 
/eyes  is  darkness,  and  theirs  will  be  a  great  punishment. — '  And  in  this 
wise/  Goethe  continues,  '  we  have  Surah  after  Surah.  Belief  and  unbelief 
are  divided  into  upper  and  lower.  Heaven  and  hell  await  the  believers  or 
deniers.  Detailed  injunctions  of  things  allowed  and  forbidden,  legendary 
stories  of  Jewish  and  Christian  religion,  amplifications  of  all  kinds,  bound- 
less tautologies  and  repetitions,  form  the  body  of  this  sacred  volume,  which 
to  us,  as  often  as  we  approach  it,  is  repellent  anew,  next  attracts  us  ever 
anew,  and  fills  us  with  admiration,  and  finally  forces  us  into  veneration.' " 

Thus  Goethe.  And  no  doubt  the  passage  adduced  is  as  good 
a  summary  as  any  other.  Perhaps,  if  he  had  gone  a  little 
further  in  this  same  chapter,  he  might  have  found  one  still 
more  explicit.  When  Mohammed  at  Medina  told  his 
adherents  no  longer  to  turn  in  prayer  towards  Jerusalem, 
but  towards  the  Kaaba  at  Mecca,  to  which  their  fathers  had 
turned,  and  he  was  blamed  for  this  innovation,  he  replied : — 

"  That  is  not  righteousness :  whether  ye  turn  your  faces  towards  East 
•or  West,  God's  is  the  East  as  well  as  the  ^^^est.  But  verily  righteousness 
is  his  who  believes  in  God,  in  the  day  of  judgment,  in  the  angels,  in  the 
Book  and  the  prophets ;  who  bestows  his  wealth,  for  God's  sake,  upon 
kindred,  and  orphans,  and  the  poor,  and  the  homeless,  and  all  those  who 
ask ;  and  also  upon  delivering  the  captives ;  he  who  is  stedfast  in  prayer, 
giveth  alms,  who  stands  firmly  by  his  covenants,  when  he  has  once  entered 
into  them ;  and  who  is  patient  in  adversity,  in  hardship,  and  in  times  of 
trial.  These  are  the  righteous,  and  these  are  the  God-fearing." 

Yet  these  and  similar  passages,  characteristic  as  they  be,  do 
not  suffice.  It  behoves  us  to  look  somewhat  deeper. 

First  of  all,  What  is  the  literal  meaning  of  Islam,  the 
religion  of  a  Muslim  ?  Wre  find  that  name  Muslim  already 
applied  to  those  Hanifs,  of  whom  we  have  spoken  above, 
who  had  renounced,  though  secretly,  idolatry  before  Mo- 
hammed, and  had  gone  out  to  seek  the  "  religion  of  Abra- 
ham," which  Mohammed  finally  undertook  to  re-establish. 
The  Semitic  root  of  the  word  Muslim  yields  a  variety  of 
meanings,  and  accordingly  Muslim  has  had  many  interpre- 
tations. But  in  all  these  cases — even  as  is  now  becoming  so 
universally  clear  in  the  terms  of  the  New  Testament — it  is 
as  useless  to  go  back  to  the  original  root  for  the  elucidation 
of  some  special  or  technical,  dogmatic,  scientific,  or  other 
term  of  a  certain  period,  as  it  is  to  ask  those  for  an  explana- 


ISLAM.  129 

iion  who  lived  to  use  that  same  term  long  after  it  had 
assumed  an  utterly  new,  often  the  very  opposite,  meaning. 
Salin,  the  root  of  Islam,  means,  in  the  first  instance,  to 
be  tranquil,  at  rest,  to  have  done  one's  duty,  to  have  paid 
up,  to  be  at  perfect  peace,  and,  finally,  to  hand  oneself 
over  to  Him  with  whom  peace  is  made.  The  noun 
derived  from  it  means  peace,  greeting,  safety,  salvation. 
And  the  Talmud  contains  both  the  term  and  the  explana- 
tion of  the  term  Muslim,  which  in  its  Chaldee  meaning  had 
become  naturalised  in  Arabia.  It  indicates  a  "Righteous 
man."  In  a  paraphrase  of  Proverbs  xxiv.  16,  where  the 
original  has  Zadik  (Ziddik  in  Koran),  which  is  rightly 
translated  by  the  Authorised  Version,  "Just  Man,"  the 
Talmud  has  this  very  word.  "  Seven  pits  are  laid  for  the 
*  Muslim,'  "  (Slialmana — Syr.  Msalmond)  it  says,  and  "  one 
for  the  wicked,  but  the  wicked  falls  into  his  one,  while 
the  other  escapes  all  seven." x  The  word  thus  implies 
absolute  submission  to  God's  will — as  generally  assumed — 
neither  in  the  first  instance,  nor  exclusively,  but  means, 
on  the  contrary,  one  who  strives  after  righteousness  with  his 
own  strength.  Closely  connected  with  the  misapprehension 
of  this  part  of  Mohammed's  original  doctrine  is  also  the 
popular  notion  on  that  supposed  bane  of  Islam,  Fatalism: 
but  we  must  content  ourselves  here  with  the  observation 
that,  as  far  as  Mohammed  and  the  Koran  are  concerned, 
Fatalism  is  an  utter  and  absolute  invention.  Not  once, 
but  repeatedly,  and  as  if  to  guard  against  such  an  assumption, 
Mohammed  denies  it  as  distinctly  as  he  can,  and  gives 
injunctions  which  show  as  indisputably  as  can  be  that 
nothing  was  further  from  his  mind  than  that  pious  state 
of  idle  and  hopeless  inanity  and  stagnation.  But  to  return 
to  Islam.  The  real  sum  and  substance  of  it  is  contained  in 
Mohammed's  words :  "  We  have  spoken  unto  thee  by 
revelation : — Follow  the  religion  of  Abraham."  .... 


1  There  is  also  the  story  in  the 
Talmud  of  the  Master  whose  name 
was  Shalman  (Solomon),  and  they 
said  to  him,  "  Thou  art  full  of  peace, 


and  thy  teaching  is  peace  (perfect) 
and  thou  hast  made  peace  between 
the  disciples." 


130  ISLAM. 

What  did  Mohammed  and  his  contemporaries  understand 
by  this  religion  of  Abraham  ?  "  Abraham,"  says  the  Koran, 
pointedly  and  pregnantly,  "  was  neither  a  Jew  nor  a  Chris- 
tian, but  he  was  pious  and  righteous,  and  no  idolater." 
Have  we  not  here  the  briefest  and  the  most  rationalistic 
doctrine  ever  preached?  Curious  and  characteristic  is  the 
proof  which  the  Koran  finds  it  necessary  to  allege  (partly 
found,  by  the  way,  in  the  Midrash)  for  this  : — There  was  no 
Law  (or  Gospel)  revealed  then — there  were,  in  fact,  no 
divisions  of  Semitic  creed,  no  special  and  distinctive  dogmas 
in  Abraham's  time  yet.  The  Haggadah,  it  is  true,  points 
out  that,  when  Scripture  says  "he  heard  my  voice,"  it 
meant  that  to  him  were  given,  by  anticipation,  all  that 
the  Law  and  the  Prophets  contain.  And  in  order  rightly  to 
understand  the  drift  of  Mohammed's  words,  we  must  en- 
deavour to  gather  the  little  mosaics  as  they  lie  scattered 
about  in  all  directions  in  the  Talmud  and  Midrash.  Per- 
chance a  picture,  anent  Abraham's  faith  and  works,  may 
arise  under  our  hands — a  not  unworthy  ideal  of  Judaism, 
which  formed  it,  and  Mohammedanism,  which  adopted  it ;  of 
Abraham,  the  righteous,  the  first,  and  the  greatest  Muslim. 
It  may  also  further  elucidate,  by  the  way,  the  words  of 
the  Mishnah,  "  Be  ye  of  the  Disciples  of  Abraham."  "  The 
divine  light  lay  hidden,"  says  the  Midrash,  "  until  Abraham 
came  and  discovered  it." 

Again  we  have  to  turn — driven  by  absolute  necessity — to 
one  of  those  indigestible  morsels,  one  of  the  many  cruces  of 
the  exegetes  of  Orient  and  Occident.  The  word  used  in  the 

o 

Koran  for  the  "  Eeligion  of  Abraham  "  is  generally  Milla. 
Sprenger,  after  ridiculing  the  indeed  absurd  attempts  made 
to  derive  it  from  an  Arabic  root,  concludes  that  it  must  be  a 
foreign  word,  introduced  by  the  teachers  of  the  "Milla  of 
Abraham"  into  the  Hejaz.  He  is  perfectly  right.  Milla  = 
Memra  =  Logos,  are  identical:  being  the  Hebrew,  Chaldee 
(Targum,  Peshito  in  slightly  varied  spelling),  and  Greek 
terms  respectively  for  "  Word'' — that  surrogate  for  the 
Divine  Name  used  by  the  Targum,  by  Philo,  by  St.  John. 
This  Milla,  or  "  Word,"  which  Abraham  proclaimed,  he, 


ISLAM. 


131 


"  who  was  not  an  astrologer,  but  a  prophet " — teaches,  ac- 
cording to  the  Haggadah,  first  of  all,  the  existence  of  One 
God,  the  Creator  of  the  Universe,  who  rules  this  Universe 
with  mercy  and  lovingkindness.1     He   alone   also,  neither 
angel  nor  planet,  guides  the  destinies  of  man.   Idolatry,  even 
when  combined  with  the  belief  in  Him,  is  utterly  to  be  ab- 
horred ;  He  alone  is  to  be  worshipped ;  in  Him  alone  trust  is 
to  be  placed  in  adversity.     He  frees  the  persecuted  and  the 
oppressed.     You  must  pray  to  Him  and  serve  Him  in  love, 
and  not  murmur  when  He  asks  for  your  lives,  or  even  for 
lives  still  dearer  to  you  than  your  own.    As  to  duties  towards 
man,  it  teaches — "  Lovingkindness  and  mercy  are  the  tokens 
of  the  faith  of  Abraham."     "  He  who  is  not  merciful  is  not 
of  the  children  of  Abraham."     "  What  is  the  distinguishing 
quality  of  Abraham's  descendants  ?  their  compassion  and 
their  mercy."     (Be  it  observed,  by  the  way,  that  in  all  these 
Talmudical  passages  the  word  Eachman  is  used,  which  term 
for   "  Merciful "  forms  an  emphatic  mark  in  the  Koran.) 
"  Abraham  not  merely  forgave  Abimelech,  but  he  prayed  for 
him ;  "  and  this  mercy,  charity,  and  lovingkindness  is  to  be 
extended  to  every  being,  without  reference  to  "  garment," 
birth,  rank,  creed,  or  nationality.     Disinterestedness  and  un- 
selfishness are  self-understood  duties.    Though  the  whole  land 
had  been  promised  to  Abraham  by  God,  he  bought  the  ground 
for  Sarah's  tomb.     After  the  victorious  campaign  he  took 
nothing,  no,  not  even  "  from  a  thread  to  a  shoe-latchet "  from 
the  enemy.     Modesty  and  humility  are  other  qualities  en- 
joined by  him.     Kule   yourself,  he   said,   before   you  rule 
others.     Eschew  pride,  which   shortens   life — modesty  pro- 
longs it.     It  purifies  from  all  sins,  and  is  the  best  weapon 


1  "God,"  says  the  Talmud,  in 
boldest  transcendental  flight,  "  prays." 
And  what  is  that  prayer?— "Be  it 
my  will  that  my  mercy  overpower  my 
justice."  The  Koran  says: — "God 
has  laid  down  for  Himself  the  Law 
of  Mercy." 

God's  Mercy,  says  the  Midrash, 
was  the  only  link  that  held  the  uni- 
verse together  before  the  "  Law " 
came  to  be  revealed  to  man.  And 
very  beautifully  does  the  Haggadistic 


version  of  the  manner  in  which  the 
universe,  which,  spite  of  all,  would 
not  rest  firmly,  but  kept  swaying  to 
and  fro  in  space,  "even  as  a  great 
palace  built  of  mortal  man,  the  foun- 
dations whereof  are  not  firmly  laid," 
contrast  from  all  those  well-known 
wild  heapings-up  of  monsters  be- 
gotten for  steadying  purposes. — "  The 
earth  shook  and  trembled,  and  would 
not  find  rest  until  God  created  Ke- 
pentance  : — then  it  stood." 

K   2 


132  ISLAM. 

for  conquest.  His  humility  was  shown  even  by  the  way  in 
which  he  exercised  his  hospitality.  He  waited  himself  on 
his  guests,  and  when  they  tried  to  thank  him,  he  said, 
"  Thank  Him,  the  One,  who  nourisheth  all,  who  ruleth  in 
heaven  and  earth,  who  killeth  and  giveth  life,  who  causeth 
the  plants  to  grow,  and  who  createth  man  according  to  His 
wisdom."  He  inaugurated  the  Morning  Prayer — even  as  did 
Isaac  that  of  the  Evening,  and  Jacob  that  of  the  Night.  He 
went,  even  in  his  old  age,  ever  restless  in  doing  good,  to 
succour  the  oppressed,  to  teach  and  preach  to  all  men.  He 
"  wore  a  jewel  round  his  neck,  the  light  of  which  raised  up 
the  bowed-down  and  healed  the  sick,  and  which,  after  his 
death,  was  placed  among  the  stars."  And  see  how  he  was 
chosen  to  be  tempted  with  the  bitterest  trial,  in  order  that 
mankind  might  see  how  steadfast  he  remained — "  even  as 
the  potter  proves  the  strength  of  his  ware,  not  by  that  which 
is  brittle,  but  by  that  which  is  strong."  And  when  he  died, 
he  left  to  his  children  four  guardian  angels — "  Justice  and 
Mercy,  Love  and  Charity." 

Such  are  the  floating  outlines  of  the  faith  of  Abraham 
to  be  gathered  from  the  Haggadah ;  and  these  traits  form 
the  fundamental  bases  of  Mohammed's  doctrine — often  in 
the  very  words,  always  in  the  sense,  of  these  Jewish  tradi- 
tions. The  most  emphatic  moment,  however,  we  find  laid 
upon  the  Unity  of  God,  the  absence  of  Intermediators,  and 
the  repudiation  of  any  special,  exclusive,  "  privileged  "  creed. 
This  is  a  point  on  which  the  Talmud  is  very  strong — not 
merely  declaring  its  aversion  to  proselytism,  but  actually 
calling  every  righteous  man,  so  that  he  be  no  idolater,  a 
"Jew"  to  all  intents  and  purposes.  The  tracing  of  the 
minutiae  of  general  human  ethics  is,  comparatively  speaking, 
of  less  import,  considering  that  these,  in  their  outlines,  are 
wonderfully  alike,  in  Hellas  and  India,  and  Home  and  Persia 
and  Japan ;  so  that  it  would  indeed  be  difficult  to  say  who 
first  invented  the  great  law  of  goodwill  towards  fellow- 
creatures.  But  the  manner  and  the  words  in  which  these 
things  are  inculcated,  mark  their  birthplace  and  the  stages 
of  their  journey  clearly  enough  in  the  Semitic  creeds. 


ISLAM.  133 

And  with  the  doctrines — if  so  we  may  call  them — of 
Abraham,  as  we  gathered  them  from  the  Jewish  writings, 
Mohammed  also  introduced  the  whole  legendary  cycle  that 
surrounds  Abraham's  head,  like  a  halo,  in  these  same 
writings.  We  have  in  the  Koran,  first  of  all,  that  wondrous 
Haggadistic  explanation,  how  Abraham  first  came  to  worship, 
in  the  midst  of  idolaters,  the  One  invisible  God — how  he 
first  lifted  up  his  eyes  heavenwards  and  saw  a  brilliant  star, 
and  said,  This  is  God.  But  when  the  star  paled  before  the 
brightness  of  the  moon,  he  said,  This  is  God.  And  then  the 
sun  rose  and  Abraham  saw  God  in  the  golden  glory  of  the 
sun.  But  the  sun,  too,  set,  and  Abraham  said,  "  Then  none 
of  you  is  God ;  but  there  is  one  above  you  who  created  both 
you  and  me.  Him  alone  will  I  worship,  the  Maker  of 
Heaven  and  Earth !  "  How  he  then  took  an  axe  and  de- 
stroyed all  the  idols  and  placed  the  axe  in  the  hands  of  the 
biggest,  accusing  him  of  the  deed ;  how  he  is  thrown  into 
the  fiery  furnace,  and  God  said  to  the  fire,  "  Be  thou  cold ;  " 
how  he  entertained  the  Angels,  and  how  he  brought  his 
beloved  son  to  the  Altar,  and  an  "  excellent  victim  "  (a  ram 
from  Paradise)  was  sacrificed  in  his  stead ;  and  so  on.  All 
this,  though  only  sketched  in  its  outlines  in  the  Koran,  is 
absolute  Haggadah,  with  scarcely  as  much  of  alteration  as 
would  naturally  be  expected  in  the  like  fantastic  matter, 
even  as  is  the  rest  of  that  "  entire  world  of  pious  biblical 
legend  which  Islam  has  said  and  sung  in  its  many  tongues, 
to  the  delight  of  the  wise  and  simple,  for  twelve  centuries 
now,  to  be  found  either  in  embryo  or  fully  developed  in  the 
Haggadah."  l 

But  here,  in  the  midst  of  our  discourse,  we  are  compelled 
to  break  off,  reserving  its  continuation :  notably  with  regard 
to  the  theoretical  and  practical  bearing  of  the  religion  of 
Mohammed,  and  the  relation  of  its  religious  terms 2  and 


1  See  page  48. 

2  E.g.  Koran,  Forkan  (  =  Pirke,  ex- 
position of  Halachah),  Torah  (Law), 
Shechmah   (presence   of    God),   Gan 
Eden   (Paradise),  Gehhmom    (Hell), 
Haber  (Master),  Darash  (search  the 


Scriptures),  Eabbi  (teacher),  Sabbath 
(day  of  rest),  Mishnah  (Oral  Law), 
&c.,  all  of  winch  are  bodily  found  in 
the  Koran,  as  well  as  even  such 
words  as  the  Hebrew  Yam  (for  Red 
Sea),  &c. 


134  ISLAM. 

individual  tenets  to  those  of  Judaism ;  also  its  progress  and 
the  changes  wrought  within  the  community  by  many  and 
most  daring  sects ;  and  the  present  aspect  of  the  Faith  and 
its  general  influence.  And  this  our  Exordium  we  will  sum 
up  with  the  beginning  of  the  Surah,  called  the  Assembly, 
revealed  at  Medina  : — 

"  In  the  name  of  God,  the  Merciful,  the  Compassionate.  Whatsoever  is 
in  heaven  and  on  earth  praises  God  the  King,  the  Holy  One,  the  Almighty, 
the  Allwise.  It  is  He  who  out  of  the  midst  of  the  illiterate  Arabs  has 
raised  an  Apostle  to  show  unto  them  his  signs,  and  to  sanctify  them,  and 
to  teach  them  the  Scripture  and  the  Wisdom,  them  who  before  had  been 

in  great  darkness This  is  God's  free  Grace,  which  Hegiveth  unto 

whomsoever  He  wills.     God  is  of  great  Mercy ! " 


(    135    ) 


III. 

NOTES  OF  A  LECTUKE   ON  THE 
TALMUD.1 


MR.  DEUTSCH  began  his  lecture  by  speaking  of  the  various 
and  contradictory  ideas  people  had  about  the  Talmud :  some 
believing  it  to  be  almost  divine :  others  that  it  was  nothing 
but  folly  and  childishness.  Those  who  investigated  the  book 
were,  he  said,  like  those  explorers  sent  by  Moses  into  the 
Promised  Land,  the  majority  of  whom  returned  with  tales  of 
iron  walls  and  monstrous  giants,  while  a  few  came  back 
carrying  a  huge  bunch  of  delicious  grapes.  Many  were  the 
striking  and  poetical  similes  suggested  by  that  strange  work, 
such  as  an  ocean,  or  a  buried  city ;  but  speaking  of  it  strictly 
as  a  book,  the  nearest  approach  to  it  was  Hansard.  Like 
Hansard,  it  is  a  law-book :  a  miscellaneous  collection  of 
Parliamentary  debates,  of  bills,  motions,  and  resolutions; 
with  this  difference  that  in  Hansard  these  propositions,  bills, 
and  motions,  gradually  grow  into  an  Act:  while  in  the 
Talmud  the  Act  is  the  starting-point,  and  the  debates  its 
consequence.  The  disquisitions  in  the  Talmud  seek  to  evolve 
the  reasons  for  the  Act  out  of  Scripture,  of  which  itself  is  a 
development  and  an  outgrowth ;  while  at  the  same  time, 
supplementary  paragraphs  are  constantly  drawn  out  of  its 
own  legal  text.  These  bills  or  Acts  are  called  the  Mishnali, 
both  collectively  and  individually  ;  the  discussions,  Gemara ; 
both  together,  Talmud. 

The  Talmud,  however,  contains  a  vast   deal  more  than 


1  Delivered  on  Friday  evening,  May  15,  1868,  at  the  Koyal  Institution  of 
Great  Britain,  Albemarle  Street. 


136  NOTES  OF  A  LECTURE 

Hansard :  it  is  not  confined  to  strictly  legal  matters.  All 
those  manifold  assemblies  wherein  a  people's  mental,  social,, 
and  religious  life  are  considered  and  developed,  are  here 
represented.  Parliament,  Convocation,  Law-Courts,  Acade- 
mies, Colleges,  the  Temple  and  the  Synagogue — even  the 
Lobby  and  the  Common  Eoom  have  left  realistic  traces 
upon  it.  The  authors  of  this  book,  who  may  be  counted  by 
hundreds,  were  always  the  most  prominent  men  of  the  people- 
in  their  respective  generations ;  and  thus  undesignedly  and 
designedly  show  the  fulness  and  the  various  phases  of  this- 
people's  life  and  progress  at  every  turn. 

The  Talmud,  in  this  wise,  contains  besides  the  social, 
criminal,  international,  human  and  divine  Law,  along  with 
abundant  explanations  of  Laws  not  perfectly  comprehended,, 
corollaries  and  inferences  from  the  Law,  that  were  handed 
down  with  more  or  less  religious  reverence,  an  account  also 
of  the  education,  the  arts,  the  science,  the  history,  and 
religion  of  this  people  for  about  a  thousand  years:  most 
fully  perhaps  of  the  time  immediately  preceding  and  follow- 
ing the  birth  of  Christianity.  It  shows  us  the  teeming  streets- 
of  Jerusalem,  the  tradesman  at  his  work,  the  women  in  their 
domestic  circle,  even  the  children  at  play  in  the  market- 
place. The  Priest  and  the  Levite  ministering  in  their  holy 
sites,  the  preacher  on  the  hillside  surrounded  by  the  multi- 
tude, even  the  story-teller  in  the  bazaar :  they  all  live,  move 
and  have  their  being  in  these  pages.  Nor  is  it  Jerusalem  or 
even  the  hallowed  soil  of  Judaea  alone,  but  the  whole  antiqu© 
world  that  seems  to  lie  embalmed  in  it:  we  find  here  the 
most  curious  notices  of  the  religion  of  Zoroaster — how  it 
gradually  was  restored  to  its  original  status ;  as  if  all  things 
which  had  dropped  out  of  the  records  of  antique  humanity 
had  taken  refuge  in  the  Talmud. 

Athens  and  Alexandria,  Persia  and  Kome,  their  civiliza^ 
tions  and  religions  old  and  new  are  represented  at  every 
turn.  That  cosmopolitanism  which  for  good  or  evil  has  ever 
been  the  characteristic  trait  of  the  Jewish  people,  and  which 
was,  in  fact,  the  highest  type  of  teaching,  is  most  vividly 
represented  in  this  book.  One  of  the  most  striking  historical. 


ON  THE  TALMUD.  137 

points  is  their  always  coming  in  contact,  generally  against 
their  will,  with  the  most  prominent  nations,  exactly  at  the 
moment  when  the  latter  seem  to  have  reached  the  highest 
point  of  culture  in  their  own  development.  Passing  over  the 
three  different  stages  of  the  people  as  Hebrews,  Israelites, 
Jews — names  which  have  a  distinct  significance — we  find 
them  connected  with  Chaldea,  Egypt,  Phoenicia,  Assyria, 
Babylonia,  Persia,  Greece,  Eome,  Arabia.  Yet  that  cosmo- 
politanism never  for  one  moment  interfered  with  the  most 
marked  mental  individuality.  There  always  remained  the 
one  central  sun,  the  Bible:  around  this  ever  revolved  that 
great  Cosmos,  the  Talmud — wild  and  vague,  though  it  may 
be — and  from  it,  as  shown  in  the  Gemara,  the  Mishnah  is 
begotten. 

The  Talmud  has  been  harshly  dealt  with,  more  owing  to 
the  blunders  of  friends  than  of  foes.  Some  people  have 
supposed  that  whatever  any  Jew  wrote  was  a  Talmud :  others 
have  spoken  of  it  as  a  revelation,  and  claimed  inspiration  for 
it.  The  fact  is,  that  what  each  of  these  men  wrote  was 
purely  his  own:  and  no  one  of  them  would  have  claimed 
more  for  them  than  that  they  were  his  own  utterances.  And 
it  was  only  because  some  of  the  laws  or  injunctions  in  it  were 
attributed  to  Moses  on  Mount  Sinai,  that  any  sort  of  divinity 
was  predicated  of  it. 

As  to  its  "  dates,"  nothing  can  be  more  authentic  than  the 
memory  of  the  East.  The  Talmud  has  been  preserved  with 
absolute  authenticity  in  the  memory  of  doctors  and  disciples, 
in  the  same  way  as  many  Brahmins  and  Parsee  priests  can 
repeat,  without  the  variation  of  a  single  accent,  entire  Yedas 
and  other  chapters  of  their  sacred  books,  although  without 
the  slightest  conception  of  their  contents,  and  wholly  igno- 
rant of  their  meaning.  The  same  was  true  of  the  followers 
of  Zoroaster.  At  the  same  time,  there  is  no  doubt,  that 
much  was  written  down  by  way  of  note  by  scribes,  who  yet 
did  not  venture  upon  the  work  of  redaction.  What  alterations 
there  are  in  the  Talmud  are  owing  to  censors  who  changed 
passages  that  were  supposed  to  clash  with  Christianity,  and 
produced  the  most  singular  obscurities.  The  censor's  work 


138  NOTES  OF  A  LECTURE 

was  fruitless,  for  in  reality  there  was  nothing  in  the  genuine 
Talmud  to  be  taken  out. 

But  indeed  we  have,  apart  from  the  clearest  and  most 
Irrefutable  evidences  of  witnesses,  all  the  ordinary  internal 
evidences  of  history.  We  have  an  array  of  carefully  pre- 
served historical  names  and  dates  from  beginning  to  end; 
names  and  dates,  the  general  faithfulness  and  truth  of  which 
have  never  yet  been  called  into  question.  From  the  Great 
Synagogue  down  to  the  final  completion  of  the  Babylonian 
Oemara,  we  have  the  legal  and  philosophical  development  of 
the  nation  always  embodied  as  it  were  in  the  successive 
principal  schools  and  men  of  their  times.  Its  chief  im- 
portance for  religious  history  is  the  manner  in  which  it 
informs  us  of  things  and  circumstances  at  the  time  of  the 
birth  of  Christianity,  among  the  Priests  and  Pharisees,  of 
the  education,  synagogues,  preaching,  of  women,  of  angels 
and  demons,  &c.  It  gives  us  the  ethical  sayings,  the  parables, 
gnomes,  &c.,  which  were  the  principal  vehicle  of  the  common 
Jewish  teaching  from  an  almost  pre-historic  period.  These 
.sayings  were  often  tender,  poetical,  sublime  :  but  they  were 
not  absolutely  neiv:  there  was  not  one  that  was  not  sub- 
stantially contained  in  the  canonical  and  uncanonical 
writings  of  the  Old  Testament. 

Here  also,  we  find  the  first  cry  of  separation  between 
Church  and  State :  the  first  antagonism  or  contest  of  cere- 
monialism and  free  investigation.  The  Priests  were  the 
representatives  of  a  privileged  class,  and,  it  must  always 
be  remembered,  of  one  family.  The  first  revolt  against  this 
system  we  have  in  the  story  of  Korah.  It  was  doubtless 
good  for  the  Jews  at  that  time,  and  for  centuries  after  that 
revolt  was  quelled :  they  could  scarcely  have  got  on  without 
the  Sacrifices,  Temple,  and  all  its  concomitants;  but  after 
the  Babylonian  captivity  when  idolatry  had  died  out,  learn- 
ing became  of  higher  moment.  The  Priests  had  sadly  dete- 
riorated as  a  body,  with  some  bright  exceptions,  since  the 
days  of  the  Maccabees,  when  they  by  an  accident  suddenly 
found  themselves  in  political  power.  From  being,  as  Moses 
intended  them  to  be,  the  receivers  of  the  people's  free  gifts, 


ON  THE  TALMUD.  139 

their  messengers — not  mediators — and  their  teachers,  they 
had  become,  chiefly  in  the  upper  strata,  an  encroaching  and 
ignorant  faction.  The  ordinary  priests  had  mostly  sunk  into 
mere  local  functionaries  of  the  Temple,  while  many  of  the 
High  Priests,  who  in  their  later  days  bought  their  sacred 
office  from  the  ruling  foreign  power,  had  forgotten  the  very 
elements  of  that  Bible  which  they  had  been  especially 
appointed  to  teach.  But  a  strong  re-action  set  in.  The 
Pharisees,  in  view  of  the  clouds  that  they  saw  gathering 
round  the  Commonwealth,  had  but  one  cry  —  Education: 
catholic,  compulsory  and  gratuitous.  The  watchwords  re- 
sounding from  one  end  of  the  Talmud  to  the  other  are  the 
words,  "  learn — teach ;  teach — learn."  The  Priesthood,  the 
Sacrifices,  the  Temple,  as  they  all  went  Mown  at  one  sudden 
blow,  seemed  scarcely  to  leave  a  gap  in  the  religious  life  of 
the  nation.  The  Pharisees  had  long  before  undermined 
these  things,  or  rather  transplanted  them,  into  the  people's 
homes  and  heart.  Every  man  in  Israel,  they  said,  is  a 
priest,  every  man's  house  a  temple,  every  man's  table  an 
altar,  every  man's  prayer  his  sacrifice.  Long  before  the 
Temple  fell,  it  had  been  virtually  superseded  by  hundreds  of 
synagogues,  schools,  and  colleges,  where  laymen  read  and 
expounded  the  Law  and  the  Prophets.  The  Priest  as  such, 
or  the  Levite,  played  but  a  very  insignificant  part  in  the 
synagogue  and  school.  The  function  of  pronouncing  the 
"Benediction"  on  certain  occasions,  and  a  kind  of  vague 
"  precedence  "  was  all  that  the  synagogue  had  preserved  of 
the  former  high  estate  of  the  sons  of  Aaron.  Yet  on  the 
other  hand,  many  of  these  men,  having  lost  their  former 
privileges,  applied  themselves  all  the  more  vigorously  to 
study,  and  to  the  great  national  work  of  Education.  Nor 
was  there  any  real  personal  antagonism  between  the  "  phari- 
saical "  or  "  popular "  party,  and  the  descendants  of  the 
"sacred"  tribe  and  family.  There  is  on  the  contrary  a 
legend,  one  of  the  most  cherished  of  all  the  legends  (as 
usual  faithfully  interpreting  the  people's  real  feeling),  which 
tells  how,  when  the  enemy  entered  the  Holy  of  Holies,  the 


MO  NOTES  OF  A  LECTURE 

Priests  and  Levites,  led  by  the  venerable  High  Priest  him- 
self, bearing  aloft  the  golden  key  of  the  sanctuary,  were  seen 
ascending  to  the  highest  summit,  and  then  precipitating 
themselves,  with  all  the  tokens  and  emblems  of  their  sacred 
trust,  into  the  blazing  ruins  of  the  Temple — rather  than 
deliver  them  up  to  the  conquerors  ! 

Strenuously  and  indefatigably,  we  have  said,  the  Pharisees 
advocated  education  ;  and  by  their  unceasing  efforts,  hundreds 
of  synagogues,  colleges,  and  schools  arose,  not  only  in  Judaea, 
but  throughout  the  whole  Koman  Empire.  Over  Judeea, 
after  many  unsuccessful  attempts,  education  was  made  com- 
pulsory everywhere  except  in  Galilee.  Peculiar  circum- 
stances arising  out  of  its  geographical  position  behind 
Samaria  and  Phoanicia,  had  reduced  that  beautiful  country 
to  be  the  Boeotia  of  Palestine.  The  faulty  pronunciation  of 
its  inhabitants  was  the  standing  joke  of  the  witty  denizens 
of  the  metropolis.  After  the  fall  of  Jerusalem,  however,  this 
was  altered  ;  and  Galilee  became  in  her  turn,  the  seat  of 
some  of  the  most  exalted  Academies. 

The  regulations  and  provisions  for  public  instruction  were 
extremely  strict  and  minute.  The  number  of  children  al- 
lotted to  one  teacher,  the  school  buildings  and  their  sites, 
the  road  even  that  led  to  them,  everything  was  considered ; 
no  less  the  age  of  the  pupils  and  the  duties  of  the  parents 
with  regard  to  preliminary  preparation  and  continuous 
domestic  supervision  of  their  tasks.  The  subjects,  the 
method,  the  gradual  weaning  even  of  the  pupil  into  a 
teacher  or  helpmate  of  his  fellow-pupils — all  these  things 
are  carefully  exposed  in  the  Talmud.  Above  all  is  the  great 
principle  Non  multa  sed  multum,  the  motto  of  all  schooling 
in  the  Talmud.  Good  fundamental  grounding,  elementary 
maternal  teaching,  and  constant  repetition  are  some  of  the 
chief  principles  laid  down.  The  teachers,  in  most  cases? 
taught  gratuitously:  considering  theirs  a  holy  and  godly 
office,  for  which  the  reward  would  surely  not  fail  them.  The 
relation  between  master  and  disciple  was  generally  that  of 
father  and  child,  or  friend  and  friend.  Next  to  Law,  Ethics, 


ON  THE  TALMUD.  141 

History,  and  Grammar — Languages  were  one  of  the  prin- 
cipal subjects  of  study.  We  hear  of  Coptic,  Aramaic, 
Persian,  Median,  Latin,  but  above  all  Greek.  The  terms 
in  which  this  last  language  is  spoken  of  verge  indeed  on 
the  transcendental.  This  also  is  the  only  language  which 
it  seems  to  have  been  incumbent  to  teach  even  to  girls. 
Medicine  was  another  necessary  subject  of  instruction :  the 
hygienic  laws  and  the  anatomical  knowledge  (bound  up  with 
religion)  transmitted  to  us  in  the  book  show  indeed  no  small 
proficiency  for  its  time.  Mathematics  and  astronomy  formed 
another  part  of  instruction,  and  were  indeed  considered  in- 
dispensable. We  hear  of  men  to  whom  the  ways  of  the 
stars  in  the  skies  were  as  familiar  as  the  streets  of  their 
native  city,  and  others  who  could  compute  the  number  of 
drops  in  the  ocean,  who  foretold  the  appearance  of  comets, 
&c.  Next  came  Natural  History,  chiefly  Botany  and 
Zoology.  The  highest  point,  however,  was  reached  in  Juris- 
prudence, which  formed  the  most  extensive  and  thoroughly 
national  study. 

..  The  chief  aim  and  end  of  all  learning — the  Talmud  is 
never  tired  of  repeating — is  doing.  All  knowledge  is  but  a  step 
to  "  modesty  and  the  fear  of  heaven ;"  and  innumerable  are 
the  parables  whereby  this  lesson  is  inculcated.  After  briefly 
adverting  to  Prayers  and  Sermons  and  the  whole  worship 
of  Temple  and  Synagogue  at  the  time  of  Christ,  the  speaker 
turned  to  the  "  political  "  portions  of  the  "  Law  "  under  con- 
sideration, and  having  pointed  out  how  almost  the  modern 
theory  of  constitutionalism  was  contained  in  it,  briefly 
touched  upon  the  relationship  between  Eoyalty,  State,  and 
subjects,  and  the  provisions  for  taxes,  for  war,  the  legislative 
and  judicial  powers,  &c.  Both  this,  the  legal,  and  the  other, 
the  ethical  part  of  the  book — so  closely  intertwined  that 
they  can  hardly  be  separated — may  be  said  to  grow  out 
chiefly  of  one  fundamental  axiom  of  the  Talmud,  viz.  the 
utter  and  absolute  equality  of  all  men  and  the  obligation  to 
"  follow  God,"  by  imitating  the  mercy  attributed  to  Him  by 
Scripture.  No  book  can  possibly  point  out  in  stronger 


142  NOTES  OF  A  LECTUKE 

language  than   the   Talmud   does,   the   extreme   sinfulness 
of  sin. 

Next  the  speaker  alluded  to  the  holy  influence  exercised 
by  the  women,  of  whom  the  Talmud  not  only  records  the 
noblest  deeds,  but  whom,  even  as  the  angels  themselves,  it 
makes  at  times  the  bearers  of  most  sublime  thoughts.  .Re- 
garding the  latter,  it  was  shown  at  some  length  how  both 
they  and  their  counterparts  "  the  demons  "  were — though 
partly  adopted  from  Persian  or  rather  Zoroastrian  meta- 
physics— made  the  vehicles  of  national  Jewish  doctrines. 
Indeed,  all  those  pantheistic  and  dualistic  principles  which 
the  people  had  gathered  from  the  creed  of  other  nations, 
were  transformed  under  the  skilful  hand  of  the  Talmudical 
masters  into  strictly  monotheistic  elements,  by  being  either 
idealized  into  abstract  notions  of  right  and  wrong,  or  sur- 
rounded by  a  poetical  halo  which  deprived  them  of  any  real 
existence.  Thus  Satan  (Sammael,  the  "Primeval  Serpent"), 
though  mythologically  his  functions  are  precisely  similar  to 
those  of  the  Persian  "Evil  Spirit,"  i.e.  those  of  Seducer, 
Accuser,  and  Angel  of  Death,  is  yet  explained  away  philo- 
sophically as  meaning  merely  "Passion,"  which  seduces, 
produces  remorse,  and  kills.  The  demons  are  said  to  have 
masks  before  their  faces,  which  fall  only  when  the  sin  is 
committed;  it  is  then  only  that,  as  bitter  self-reproaches, 
they  surround  the  sinner  on  all  sides.  Another  instance 
of  this  is  the  legend  of  Isaac,  in  which  "  Satan,"  as  the 
Angel  of  Death,  appears  first  as  an  accuser  of  Abraham 
(as  of  Job)  before  God,  next  as  a  seducer  to  Abraham  in  the 
garb  of  an  old  man,  to  Isaac  in  that  of  a  youth,  finally  to 
Sarah,  informing  her  of  the  danger  in  which  her  son  had 
been  placed.  There  is  also  the  legend  of  the  death  of 
Moses,  in  which  Satan,  eager  to  vanquish  the  "divine  man," 
is  thwarted  by  God's  Name  even  to  the  end. 

In  the  same  manner  Asmodeus  (the  Persian  Aeshma) 
"  Lilith,"  and  the  rest  of  the  demoniacal  powers,  as  well  as 
those  allegorical  monsters  the  "  Leviathans,"  the  "  Cocks," 
the  "  Bulls,"  and  the  rest  of  the  ever-repeated  reproaches  to 


ON  THE  TALMUD.  143 

the  Talmud,  have  to  play  their  instructive  part.  All  these 
are  taken  almost  bodily  from  the  Zendavesta,  which  in  itself 
represents  more  or  less  a  protest  against  the  Vedic  faith. 
They  are  either  reduced  into  their  original  meanings  in  the 
Talmud,  or  they  are  ridiculed  and  made  to  inculcate  some 
moral  lesson.  On  the  other  hand  the  famous  "Sea  Fairy 
Tales,"  taken  from  Vedic  sources,  are  made  into  guises  of 
political,  if  not  religious  satires.  When  the  Persians  broke 
off  from  the  Indians,  the  good  gods  of  the  old  system  became 
the  bad  gods  of  the  new,  and  vice  versa. 

After  dwelling  on  the  causes  of  the  obscurity  of  some  of 
the  matters  found  in  the  Talmud  and  their  apparent  want 
of  dignity — occasioned  partly  by  the  circumstances  and  the 
manners  of  the  period,  and  partly  by  the  neglect  of  copyists, 
and  the  undying  fanaticism  which  ever  tried  to  "  improve " 
this  important  record  of  humanity — the  speaker  instanced 
the  various  modes  in  which  the  Talmudical  authors  figured  to 
themselves  the  Messianic  times,  and  the  utter  and  absolute 
freedom  with  which  they  expressed  their  opinion  on  this  as 
on  every  other  religious  topic.  Every  sermon,  every  dis- 
course that  treated  of  holy  things  ended  with  the  one  com- 
prehensive formula  "  And  may  to  Sion  come  the  Kedeemer ! " 
The  opinions  of  the  modes  and  objects  of  his  coming  are 
many  and  various;  the  Talmud  records  them  all  equally, 
faithfully,  and  without  comment,  save  that  to  him  who  says 
the  Messiah  is  no  longer  to  be  expected,  it  adds,  "  May  God 
forgive  him ! " 

Further  remarks  on  the  value  of  the  Talmud  as  a  "  human 
study  "  in  our  days,  and  the  scientific  manner  in  which  it 
should  be  treated,  followed.  It  required,  the  speaker  said,  a 
certain  system  and  method  entirely  of  its  own,  being  itself 
in  almost  every  respect  an  exceptional  work.  Above  all, 
however,  the  investigator  should  not  only  be  armed  with 
patience  and  perseverance  such  as  is  scarcely  needed  for  any 
other  branch  of  study,  but  he  must  leave  all  and  every 
prejudice,  religious  and  otherwise,  behind  him.  Then, 
and  then  only,  might  he  hope  to  gather  in  it  some  of  the 


144  NOTES  OF  A  LECTURE  ON  THE  TALMUD. 

richest   and  most  precious    fruits   of  human   thought   and 
fancy. 

The  legend  of  Elijah  standing  on  the  mountains  of  Judaea 
three  days  before  the  appearance  of  the  Messiah,  proclaiming 
peace  and  redemption  to  all  mankind,  followed  by  the 
legendary  vision  of  the  final  consummation  of  all  things, 
and  of  the  abolition  of  Hell  and  Death, — one  of  the  grand- 
est legends  ever  conceived, — formed  the  conclusion  of  the 
discourse. 


(    145    ) 


IV. 
A    LECTURE 

DELIVERED  AT   THE 


MIDLAND   INSTITUTE,   BIKMINGHAM. 


DECEMBER  7,  1868. 

DR.  EMANUEL  DEUTSCH  explained  that  tlie  Talmud  is  the 
work  which  embodies  the  civil  and  canonical  law  of  the 
Jewish  people ;  that  it  consists  of  the  Mishnah,  or  text,  and 
the  commentary,  or  Gemara  :  that  its  contents  have  reference 
not  merely  to  religion,  but  also  to  philosophy,  medicine, 
history,  jurisprudence,  and  the  various  branches  of  practical 
duty ;  that  it  is,  in  fact,  a  law  civil  and  criminal,  national 
and  international,  human  and  divine,  forming  a  kind  of 
supplement  to  the  Pentateuch — a  supplement  such  as  it 
took  1000  years  of  a  nation's  life  to  produce ;  and  that  it 
is  not  merely  a  dull  treatise,  but  it  appeals  to  the  imagina- 
tion and  the  feelings,  and  to  all  that  is  noblest  and  purest ; 
that  between  the  rugged  boulders  of  the  law  which  bestrew 
the  pass  of  the  Talmud  there  grow  the  blue  flowers  of 
romance  and  poetry,  in  the  most  catholic  and  Eastern  sense. 
Parable,  tale,  gnome,  saga — its  elements  are  taken  from 
heaven  and  earth ;  but  chiefly  and  most  lovingly  from  the 
human  heart  and  from  Scripture,  for  every  verse  and  every 
word  in  this  latter  became,  as  it  were,  a  golden  nail  upon 
which  it  hung  its  gorgeous  tapestries.  But  it  would  be  a  great 
mistake  to  suppose  that  the  poet's  cunning  had  been  at  work 
in  the  Talmud.  It  was  only  his  heart.  The  chief  feature 
and  charm  of  its  contents  lay  in  their  utter  naivete.  Taken 

L 


146  LECTURE  AT  THE  MIDLAND  INSTITUTE. 

up,  as  they  appeared,  at  random,  and  told  in  their  simple, 
inartistic,  unconscious  form,  they  touched  the  soul.  But 
nothing  could  be  much  more  distressing  than  to  attempt  to 
take  them  out  of  their  antique  garb  and  press  them  into 
some  kind  of  modern  fashionable  dress ;  or  worse  still,  to 
systematise  and  methodise  them.  It  would  be  as  well  to 
attempt  to  systematise  the  songs  of  the  bird  in  the  wood,  or 
a  mother's  parting  blessing.  He  had,  however,  to  endeavour 
to  reproduce  a  portion  of  the  contents  of  the  Talmud,  in 
their  own  vague  sequence  and  phraseology ;  and  he  should 
confine  himself  almost  to  smaller  productions,  as  parables, 
apophthegms,  allegories,  and  the  like  minute  things,  which 
were  most  characteristic,  and  required  little  explanation. 

The  fundamental  law  of  all  human  and  social  economy  in 
the  Talmud  was  the  utter  and  absolute  equality  of  man. 
It  was  pointed  out  that  man  was  created  alone — not  more 
than  one  at  different  times,  lest  one  should  say  to  another, 
"  I  am  of  the  better  or  earlier  stock."  And  it  failed  not  to 
mention  that  man  was  created  on  the  last  day,  and  that 
even  the  gnat  was  of  more  ancient  lineage  than  man.  In  a 
discussion  which  arose  among  the  doctors  as  to  which  was 
the  most  important  passage  in  the  whole  Bible,  one  pointed 
to  the  verse,  "  And  thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbour  as  thy- 
self." The  other  contradicted  him  and  pointed  to  the 
words,  "  And  these  are  the  generations  of  man  " — not  black, 
not  white,  not  great,  not  small — but  man. 

Or,  again,  they  pointed  out  the  words,  "  And  these  are 
the  ordinances  by  which  men  shall  live  " — not  the  priest,  or 
the  levite — but  men.  The  law  given  on  Mount  Sinai,  the 
masters  said,  though  emphatically  addressed  to  one  people, 
belonged  to  all  humanity.  It  was  not  given  in  any  King's 
land,  not  in  any  city,  or  inhabited  spot,  lest  the  other 
nations  might  say,  "  We  know  nothing  of  it."  It  was  given 
on  God's  own  highway,  in  the  desert — not  in  the  darkness 
and  stillness  of  night,  but  in  plain  day,  amid  thunder  and 
lightning.  And  why  was  it  given  on  Sinai  ?  Because  it  is 
the  lowliest  and  the  meekest  of  the  mountains — to  show 
that  God's  spirit  rests  only  upon  them  that  are  meek  and 


LECTUKE  AT  THE  MIDLAND  INSTITUTE.  147 

lowly  in  their  hearts.  The  Talmud  taught  that  religion 
was  not  a  thing  of  creed  or  dogma  [or  faith  merely,  but  of 
active  goodness.  Scripture  said,  "Ye  shall  walk  in  the 
words  of  the  Lord."  "  But  the  Lord  is  a  consuming  fire — 
how  can  man  walk  in  His  way?"  "By  being,"  they 
answered,  "  as  He  is — merciful,  loving,51ong-suffering.  Mark 
how  on  the  first  page  of  the  Pentateuch  God  clothed  the 
naked — Adam  ;  and  on  the  last  He  buries  the  dead — Moses. 
He  heals  the  sick,  frees  the  captives,  does  good  to  His 
enemies,  and  He  is  merciful  both  to  the  living  and  to  the 
dead." 

In  close  connection  with  this  stood  the  relationship  of 
men  to  their  neighbours — cjiiefly  to  those  beyond  the  pale 
of  creed  or  nationality.  The  Talmud  distinctly  and  strongly 
set  its  face  against  proselytism,  pronouncing  it  to  be  even 
dangerous  to  the  commonwealth.  There  was  no  occasion,  it 
said,  for  conversion  to  Judaism,  as  long  as  a  man  fulfilled 
the  seven  fundamental  laws.  Every  man  who  did  so  was 
regarded  as  a  believer  to  all  intents  and  purposes.  It  even 
went  so  far  as  to  call  every  righteous  man  an  Israelite. 
Distinct  injunctions  were  laid  down  with  regard  to  proselytes. 
They  were  to  be  discouraged  and  warned  off,  and  told  that 
the  miseries,  privations,  and  persecutions  which  they  wished 
to  take  upon  themselves  were  unnecessary,  inasmuch  as 
all  men  were  God's  children,  and  might  inherit  the  here- 
after ;  but  if  they  persisted,  they  were  to  be  received,  and 
were  to  be  ever  afterwards  treated  tenderly.  They  illus- 
trated this  by  a  beautiful  parable  of  a  deer  coming  from  the 
forest  among  a  flock  of  sheep,  and  being  driven  off  at  night 
and  the  gate  shut  against  it,  but  being  after  many  trials,  at 
length  received  and  treated  with  more  tenderness  than  any 
of  the  sheep.  Next  stood  reverence  both  for  age  and  youth. 
They  pointed  out  that  not  merely  the  tables  of  the  law 
which  Moses  brought  down  the  second  time  from  Sinai,  but 
also  those  which  he  broke  in  his  rage,  were  carefully  placed 
in  God's  tabernacle,  though  useless.  Eeverence  old  age. 
But  all  their  most  transcendental  love  was  lavished  on  chil- 
dren. All  the  verses  of  Scripture  that  spoke  of  flowers  and 

L  2 


148  LECTURE  AT  THE  MIDLAND  INSTITUTE. 

gardens  were  applied  to  children  and  schools.  "Do  not 
touch  mine  anointed  ones,  and  do  my  prophets  no  harm," 
"  Mine  anointed  ones  "  were  school  children,  and  "  my  pro- 
phets "  their  teachers. 

The  highest  and  most  exalted  title  which  they  bestowed 
in  their  most  poetical  flights  upon  God  himself  was  that  of 
"  Pedagogue  of  Man."  There  was  drought  and  the  most 
pious  men  prayed  and  wept  for  rain,  but  none  came.  An 
insignificant-looking  person  at  length  prayed  to  Him  who 
caused  the  wind  to  blow  and  the  rain  to  fall,  and  instantly 
the  heavens  covered  themselves  with  clouds,  and  the  rain 
fell.  "Who  are  you,"  they  cried,  "whose  prayers  alone 
have  prevailed  ?  "  And  he  answered,  "  I  am  a  teacher  of 
little  children."  When  God  intended  to  give  the  law  to  the 
people,  He  asked  them  whom  they  would  offer  as  their 
guarantees  that  they  would  keep  it  holy,  and  they  said 
Abraham.  God  said,  "  Abraham  has  sinned — Isaac,  Jacob, 
Moses  himself — they  have  all  sinned ;  I  cannot  accept  them." 
Then  they  said  "  May  our  children  be  our  witnesses  and  our 
guarantees."  "  And  God  accepted  them ;  even  as  it  is 
written  "  From  the  mouths  of  the  wee  babes  has  He  founded 
His  empire."  Indeed  the  relationship  of  man  to  God  they 
could  not  express  more  pregnantly  than  by  the  most  familiar 
words  which  occurred  from  one  end  of  the  Talmud  to  th$ 
other,  "  Our  Father  in  Heaven." 

Another  simile  was  that  of  bride  and  bridegroom.  There 
was  once  a  man  who  betrothed  himself  to  a  beautiful  maiden/, 
and  then  went  away,  and  the  maiden  waited  and  waited  and 
he  came  not.  Friends  and  rivals  mocked  her,  and  said  "  He- 
will  never  come."  She  went  into  her  room,  arid  took  out 
the  letters  in  which  he  had  promised  to  be  ever  faithful. 
Weeping  she  read  them  and  was  comforted.  In  time  he 
returned,  and  enquiring  how  she  had  kept  her  faith  so  long, 
she  showed  him  his  letters.  Israel  in  misery,  in  captivity, 
was  mocked  by  the  nations  for  her  hopes  of  redemption; 
but  Israel  went  into  her  schools  and  synagogues  and  took 
out  the  letters,  and  was  comforted.  God  would  in  time 
redeem  her,  and  say,  "  How  could  you  alone  ainoDg  all  the 


LECTURE  AT  THE  MIDLAND  INSTITUTE.  149 

mocking  nations  be  faithful  ?  "     Then  Israel  would  point  to 
the  law  and  answer,  "  Had  I  not  your  promise  here  ?  " 

Next  to  women,  angels  were  the  most  frequent  bearers  of 
some  of  the  sublimest  and  most  ideal  notions  in  the  Talmud. 
66  Underneath  the  wings  of  the  seraphim,"  said  the  Talmud, 
"  are  stretched  the  arms  of  the  Divine  mercy,  ever  ready  to 
receive  sinners."  Every  word  that  emanated  from  God  was 
transformed  into  an  angel,  and  every  good  deed  of  man 
became  a  guardian  angel  to  him.  On  Friday  night,  when 
the  Jew  left  the  synagogue,  a  good  angel  and  a  bad  angel 
accompanied  him.  If,  on  entering  the  house,  he  found  the 
table  spread,  the  lamp  lighted,  and  his  wife  and  children  in 
festive  garments,  ready  to  bless  the  holy  day  of  rest,  the 
good  angel  said,  "  May  the  next  Sabbath  and  all  following 
ones  be  like  unto  this  ;  peace  unto  this  dwelling — peace ! " 
and  the  bad  angel,  against  his  will,  was  compelled  to  say 
"  Amen."  If,  on  the  contrary,  everything  was  in  confusion, 
the  bad  angel  rejoiced,  and  said  "  May  all  your  Sabbaths  and 
week  days  be  like  this ;  "  while  the  good  angel  wept  and  said 
"  Amen."  According  to  the  Talmud,  when  God  was  about 
to  create  man,  great  clamouring  arose  among  the  heavenly 
host.  Some  said,  "  Create  O  God  a  being  who  shall  praise 
Thee  on  earth,  even  as  we  sing  Thy  glory  in  heaven." 
Others  said,  "  0  God,  create  no  more !  Man  will  destroy  the 
glorious  harmony  which  Thou  hast  set  on  earth,  as  in 
heaven."  Of  a  sudden,  God  turned  to  the  contesting  host 
of  heaven,  and  deep  silence  fell  upon  them  all.  Then  before 
the  throne  of  glory  there  appeared  bending  the  knee  the 
Angel  of  Mercy,  and  he  prayed,  "  0  Father,  create  man.  He 
will  be  Thine  own  noble  image  on  earth.  I  will  fill  his  heart 
with  heavenly  pity  and  sympathy  towards  all  creatures; 
they  will  praise  Thee  through  him."  And  there  appeared 
the  Angel  of  Peace,  and  wept :  "  0  God,  man  will  disturb 
Thine  own  peace.  Blood  will  flow  ;  he  will  invent  war,  con- 
fusion, horror.  Thy  place  will  be  no  longer  in  the  midst  of 
all  Thy  earthly  works."  The  Angel  of  Justice  cried,  "  You 
will  judge  him,  God !  He  shall  be  subject  to  my  law,  and 
peace  shall  again  find  a  dwelling-place  on  earth."  The 


150  LECTURE  AT  THE  MIDLAND  INSTITUTE. 

Angel  of  Truth  said,  « Father  of  Truth,  cease !  With  man 
you  create  the  lie."  Out  of  the  deep  silence  then  was  heard 
the  divine  word  :  "  You  shall  go  with  him — you,  mine  own 
Seal,  Truth ;  but  you  shall  also  remain  a  denizen  of  heaven 
— between  heaven  and  earth  you  shall  float,  an  everlasting 
link  between  both." 

The  question  was  asked  in  the  Talmud,  why  children 
were  born  with  their  hands  clenched,  and  men  died  with 
their  hands  wide  open ;  and  the  answer  was  that  on 
entering  the  world,  man  desired  to  grasp  everything,  but 
when  he  was  leaving  it  all  slipped  away.  Even  as  a  fox,, 
which  saw  a  fine  vineyard,  and  lusted  after  its  grapes,  but 
was  too  fat  to  get  in  through  the  only  opening  there  was,, 
until  he  had  fasted  three  days.  He  then  got  in ;  but  having 
fed,  he  could  not  get  out,  until  he  had  fasted  three  days  more. 
"  Poor  and  naked  man  enters  the  world ;  poor  and  naked 
does  he  leave."  To  woman  the  Talmud  ascribed  all  the 
blessings  of  the  household.  From  her  emanated  everything 
noble,  wise,  and  true.  It  had  not  words  enough  to  impress 
man  with  the  absolute  necessity  of  getting  married.  Not 
only  was  he  said  to  be  bereaved  of  peace,  joy,  comfort,  and 
faith  without  a  wife,  but  he  was  not  even  called  a  man. 
"Who  is  best  taught?"  it  asked;  and  the  answer  is,  "He 
who  has  learned  first  from  his  mother." 

Alexander  the  Great  was  repeatedly  spoken  of  in  the 
Talmud.  In  his  travels  in  the  East,  one  day  he  Avandered  to- 
the  gate  of  Paradise,  and  knocked.  The  guardian  angel 
asked,  "Who  is  there?"  "Alexander."  "Who  is  Alex- 
ander ?"  "  Alexander,  you  know — the  Alexander — Alexander 
the  Great — Conqueror  of  the  world."  "We  know  him  not 
— he  cannot  enter  here.  This  is  the  Lord's  gate ;  only  the 
righteous  enter  here."  Alexander  begged  something  to 
show  he  had  been  there,  and  a  small  portion  of  a  skull  was 
given  him.  He  took  it  away,  and  showed  it  contemptuously 
to  his  wise  men,  who  brought  a  pair  of  scales  and  placing 
the  bone  in  one,  Alexander  put  some  of  his  silver  and  gold 
against  it  in  the  other  ;  but  the  silver  and  gold  "  kicked  the 
beam."  More  and  more  silver  and  gold  were  put  into  the  scale 


LECTURE  AT  THE  MIDLAND  INSTITUTE.  151 

and  at  last  all  his  Crown  jewels  and  diadems  were  in,  but 
they  all  flew  upwards  like  feathers  before  the  weight  of  the 
bone.  Then  one  of  the  wise  men  took  a  grain  of  dust  from  the 
ground  and  placing  it  on  the  bone,  the  scale  went  up.  The 
bone  was  that  which  surrounded  the  eye, — and  nothing  will 
ever  satisfy  the  eye,  until  grains  of  dust  and  ashes  are  placed 
upon  it,  down  in  the  grave. 

In  his  travels  Alexander  came  to  Ethiopia,  and  a  cause 
was  decided  in  his  presence  by  the  king  of  that  country.  A 
man  who  had  recently  purchased  land  found  a  treasure  upon 
it,  which  was  claimed  by  the  seller  of  the  land.  The  king 
reconciled  the  rival  claims  by  suggesting  that  the  son  of  one 
of  the  men  should  marry  the  daughter  of  the  other,  and  that 
the  treasure  should  be  given  as  the  dowry.  Alexander  was 
moody,  and  the  King  of  Ethiopia  asked,  "  Are  you  dissatisfied 
with  my  judgment?"  "Well,"  Alexander  said,  "I  am  not 
dissatisfied ;  I  only  know  we  should  have  judged  differently 
in  our  country."  "  How  ?  "  "  We  should  of  course  have 
taken  the  treasure  at  once  into  the  King's  exchequer,  and 
both  those  men  would  have  been  beheaded  on  the  spot." 
The  King  of  Ethiopia  said,  "Allow  me  to  ask  a  question. 
Does  the  sun  ever  shine  in  your  country  ?  "  "  Of  course." 
"And  does  it  ever  rain?"  "Certainly."  "Have  you  any 
cattle  ?  "  "  Yes."  "  Then  that  is  the  reason  why  the  sun 
shines,  and  the  rain  rains — it  can't  be  for  you." 

The  lecturer  concluded  by  remarking  that  what  he  had 
been  able  to  bring  before  the  audience  proved  as  it  were  but 
a  drop  in  a  vast  ocean  of  the  Talmud — that  strange,  wild, 
weird  ocean,  with  its  leviathans,  and  its  wrecks  of  golden 
argosies,  and  with  its  forlorn  bells  that  send  up  their  dreamy 
sounds  ever  and  anon,  while  the  fisherman  bends  upon  his 
oar,  and  starts  and  listens,  and  perchance  the  tears  may  come 
into  his  eyes. 


(    153    ) 


V. 

NOTES  OF  A  LECTURE  ON  SEMITIC 
PALEOGRAPHY.1 


CLOSELY  connected  as  the  sciences  of  Palaeography  and 
Epigraphy  are  with  almost  every  province  of  historical, 
chronological,  linguistic,  and  archaBological  studies,  their 
Semitic  branch  was,  Mr.  Deutsch  said,  perhaps,  of  the 
greatest  importance  of  all.  It  is  only  our  own  generation 
that  seems  to  have  become  alive  to  the  fact  that  our  know- 
ledge both  of  the  East  and  the  beginnings  of  the  West  must 
be  sought,  or  at  least  complemented,  in  the  East.  Con- 
sidering that  most  of  those  earliest  Hellenic  ornaments — 
vases  and  gems,  vessels  and  garments,  animals  and  vegetable 
substances,  weights  and  measures,  and  even  musical  instru- 
ments, mentioned  in  the  oldest  remnants  of  Greek  litera- 
ture, the  Homeric  writings — were  imported  into  Europe, 
together  with  their  Semitic  names,  by  Semites,  it  must 
indeed  be  evident  at  once  how  large  must  be  the  share  of 
Semitism  in  the  origin  of  modern  civilization.  Semite  arts 
and  sciences,  gods  and  inhabitants,  were  grafted  upon  Indo- 
Germanic  strata,  and  the  peculiarly  happy  union  of  the  two 
principal  elements  of  culture  produced  the  vast  glory  of  the 
antique.  He  then  traced  the  figures  of  our  own  alphabet 
(the  very  name  of  which  but  denotes  the  first  two  Semitic 
letters)  through  the  dark  stages  of  Etruscan,  Old-Italic,  Old- 
Hellenic,  &c.,  back  to  the  rude  scrawls  of  pre-historic  Phoeni- 
cian stonecutters;  and  further,  our  own  mode  of  writing 


From  the  « Athenaeum,'  No.  2022,  July  28,  1866.    He-printed  by  permission. 


154  NOTES  OF  A  LECTUEE 

from  left  to  right,  through  the  boustrophedon,  or  writing 
both  ways,  as  the  ox  ploughs,  to  the  primitive  manner  of 
writing  from  right  to  left,  in  Semitic  languages,  and  as  those 
Eastern  nations  that  have  adopted  the  Arabic  character  still 
do.  There  was,  Mr.  Deutsch  said,  a  strange  kind  of  fascina- 
tion connected  with  that  peculiar  study ;  it  was,  to  a  certain 
extent,  like  following  the  forms  of  the  characters  drawn  by 
the  hand  of  some  great  man,  or  some  one  peculiarly  dear  to 
us,  from  the  stage  of  their  full  development  and  vigour  to 
the  first  childish  scribbles,  through  all  the  phases  of  inter- 
vening years  with  their  many  events.  We  should,  probably, 
find  them  always  different,  yet  always  alike  in  their  broad 
outline.  The  wide  vista  displayed  to  us  by  a  retrospective 
glance  at  all  the  tribes  and  idioms  that  made  use  of  this 
alphabet,  which  suddenly,  as  it  were,  found  itself  called  upon, 
poor  and  vdwelless  as  it  was,  to  serve  them  all  to  its  best 
abilities,  is  amazing.  No  less  the  extraordinary  adaptability 
it  proved  in  this  emergency,  and  the  infinite  variety  of 
shapes  it  subsequently  had  to  assume,  according  to  time 
and  clime.  These  and  a  crowd  of  other  speculations  lifted 
the  discipline  which  led  to  them  almost  out  of  the  humble 
sphere  of  a  philological  handmaiden  to  that  of  a  mistress  of 
an  immense  domain ;  not  only  yielding  much  solid,  substan- 
tial produce  in  the  way  of  scientific  results,  but  also  giving 
full  sway  to  those  larger  and  deeper  thoughts  of  the  uni- 
versal solidarity  of  humanity,  which  almost  touch  the  realms 
of  poetry. 

Semitism,  in  its  earliest  and  most  widespread  influence  upon 
Europe,  is  chiefly  represented  by  the  Phoenicians.  To  their 
insignificant  country  alone  it  was  given  to  do  what  neither 
Egypt  nor  Assyria,  with  all  their  perfection  of  industry  and 
art,  were  able  to  do,  viz.  to  supply  the  link  between  the 
East  and  the  "West.  Communicating,  by  Arabia  and  the 
Persian  Gulf,  with  India  and  the  coast  of  Africa  towards 
the  Equator,  and  on  the  north,  along  the  Euxine,  with  the 
borders  of  Scythia,  beyond  the  Straits  of  Gibraltar,  with 
Britannia,  if  not  with  the  Baltic,  they  introduced  the  ele- 
ments of  culture  to  the  remotest  ends  of  the  earth ;  every- 


ON  SEMITIC  PAL.EOGKAPHY.  155 

where  planting  colonies,  erecting  temples,  and  laying  the 
foundations  for  a  more  humane  life  than  the  aborigines  in 
most  of  those  far-off  lands  had  ever  dreamt  of.  An  outline 
of  Phoenician  commerce,  Mr.  Deutsch  said,  would  comprise 
almost'  every  conceivable  object  of  home  or  foreign  growth,, 
or  manufacture ;  but  of  Phoenician  Art, — "  in  gold  and  silver,. 
in  brass  and  iron,  in  purple  and  in  blue,  in  stone  and  in 
timber,  in  fine  linen  and  precious  stones," — infinitely  little 
has  survived ;  and,  touching  on  Phoenician  religion, — a  sym- 
bolical worship  of  natural  phenomena,  of  abstract  ideas,  and 
of  allegories  and  special  JSTtimma, — the  complete  identity 
of  many  deities  thus  created  with  classical  deities  was  dwelt 
upon.  A  sketch  of  Phoenician  literature,  which  must  have 
been  most  extensive,  and  completely  in  accordance  with 
their  high  state  of  cultivation  and  refinement,  was  then 
given.  This  literature  consisted,  first,  of  a  vast  number  of 
theological,  or  rather  theogonical  works,  whose  authors  were 
reputed  to  be  the  gods  themselves,  and  which  were  only  ac- 
cessible to  the  priests  or  to  those  initiated  in  the  mysteries. 
From  the  allegorical  explanation  of  these  writings  sprang  a 
vast  cosmogony,  insignificant  fragments  of  which  only  have 
come  down  to  us,  mutilated  and  misinterpreted  by  their 
Greek  reporters.  Next  to  this  sacred  literature  stands  their 
didactic  poetry,  somewhat  related  to  the  Orphic.  We  further 
know  of  their  erotic  works,  of  works  on  history,  geography, 
navigation,  agriculture, — in  short,  of  almost  every  modern 
branch  of  science  and  lelles-lettres. 

But  all  this  wealth  of  literature  has  perished,  and  the 
scanty  extracts  that  may  have  survived  in  foreign  literatures 
cannot  be  looked  upon  as  really  authentic.  For  genuine 
and  unadulterated  "  literature  "  we  must  look  to  the  original 
monuments  themselves ;  to  inscriptions  on  coins  and  weights, 
on  votive  tablets,  on  sacrificial  stones,  on  tombstones,  and 
on  sarcophagi.  Broken  utterances,  faintest  echoes  though 
they  be,  out  of  them  there  might  perhaps  be  reconstructed 
more  of  the  life  of  that  wonderful  nation,  that  had  so  many 
things  in  common  with  the  English,  than  has  hitherto  been 
dreamt  of. 


156  NOTES  OF  A  LECTURE 

Before  proceeding  to  speak  of  these  monuments  them- 
selves, and  principally  of  those  most  recently  excavated,  Mr. 
Deutsch  alluded  to  a  notion  which  seems  to  be  still  abroad, 
that  the  Phoenician,  being  a  lost  language,  which  is  only 
now  being  recovered  by  degrees,  offered  the  same  amount  of 
uncertainty  in  some  of  its  decipherings  as  hieroglyphics, 
•cuneiforms,  &c.,  were  supposed  still  to  offer.  The  only 
difficulties  that  present  themselves  to  the  Phoenician  de- 
cipherer consist  either  in  the  newness  of  terms  met,  which 
do  not  offer  any  Semitic  analogies ;  or  in  their  peculiar 
orthographical  or  grammatical  forms ;  or,  finally,  in  the 
similar  shapes  some  of  the  characters  (B,  D  and  R  prin- 
cipally) exhibit.  But  here,  again,  the  difficulty  is  soon 
solved  by  the  context;  almost  with  the  same  ease  with 
which  the  vowels  are  supplied  in  any  Semitic  language,  or 
the  sometimes  missing  diacritical  points  in  any  of  the 
idioms  written  in  Arabic  characters. 

Mr.  Deutsch  next  enumerated  the  most  important  recent 
•discoveries  on  the  soil  of  Phoenicia  (Sidon)  and  her  nume- 
rous colonies,  first  giving  an  outline  of  the  history  of  Phoe- 
nician investigation  in  Europe.  Phoenician  finds  have  been 
very  frequent  of  late  years.  While  up  to  the  middle  of  the 
last  century  hardly  anything  was  known  of  the  existence 
of  Phoenician  inscriptions,  there  is  scarcely  a  museum  in 
Europe  now  which  does  not  boast  of  one  or  two  lapidary  or 
numismatic  monuments,  that  have  to  tell  some  tale  or  other 
in  the  aboriginal  tongue  of  Canaan.  Since  Pococke's  dis- 
oovery  of  thirty-one  inscriptions  on  the  site  of  ancient  Citium, 
Malta,  Sardinia,  Carthage,  Algiers,  Tripoli,  Athens,  Mar- 
seilles, and  a  host  of  other  places,  have  given  up  a  number 
of  these  eloquent  contributions  to  the  history  of  the  Semites 
who  once  dwelt  upon  these  spots.  The  most  extensive  find 
lately  made  consists  of  nearly  a  hundred  inscriptions,  ex- 
cavated on  the  site  of  ancient  Carthage, — all  votive  tablets, 
with  but  two  exceptions.  One  of  these  exceptions  is  a 
precious  sacrificial  tariff,  which  complements  in  the  happiest 
way  a  similar  sacred  document,  found  some  years  ago  at 
Marseilles.  The  other  is  probably  a  tombstone,  erected  by  a 


ON  SEMITIC  PAL^EOGKAPHY.  157 

father  to  his  son.  Another  highly  interesting  monument 
was  excavated  about  1863  in  Sardinia,  and  consists  of  the 
base  of  an  altar,  inscribed  with  a  trilingual  (Latin-Greek- 
Phoenician)  legend.  A  comparison  of  these  three  transla- 
tions, or  rather  paraphrases,  among  themselves,  leads  to 
most  interesting  results  in  many  branches  of  Greek,  Komany, 
and  Phoenician  antiquities,  and  chiefly  in  comparative 
hierology ;  while  the  Phoenician  inscription  itself,  the- 
largest  of  the  three,  is  perhaps  one  of  the  most  curious 
ever  discovered,  yielding  a  number  of  new  linguistic,  mytho- 
logical and  orthographical  items.  After  dwelling  upon  other 
bilingual,  Assyro-Phcenician,  Grseco-Phcenician,  &c.,  rem- 
nants, and  upon  the  excavations  by  recent  French  explorers- 
and  their  results,  Mr.  Deutsch  turned  to  the  Himyaritic- 
inscriptions,  lately  embodied  in  the  collections  of  the  British 
Museum,  consisting  of  votive  bronze  tablets  found  in  South 
Arabia,  and  couched  in  a  long-lost  idiom,  the  nearest  ap- 
proach to  which  is  traced  in  the  present  Amharic  :  allied  to 
Ethiopic  and  Hebrew.  The  numerous  Hebrew  inscriptions, 
which  have  of  late  been  brought  to  light,  the  tombstones- 
from  Aden  (with  several  Hiniyaritic  Alephs),  the  many 
hundreds  of  tombstones  copied  in  various  parts  of  the 
Crimea,  some  of  which  bore  very  remote  dates  indeed,  the 
inscription  on  the  "Tomb  of  the  Kings,"  with  its  double 
(Syriac  and  Hebrew)  characters,  the  family  vault  of  the 
"  Bene  Chezir,"  indicated  by  a  Hebrew  inscription  in  archaic- 
square  characters  on  the  u  Tomb  of  St.  James,"  with  liga- 
tures such  as  were  only  found  on  the  so-called  "Chaldeo- 
Egyptian  "  Papyri,  and  the  other  minor  epigraphs  discovered 
by  Renan,  De  Saulcy,  De  Vogue,  and  others,  in  their  various 
exploratory  tours  in  the  Holy  Land,  were  briefly  explained.. 
Finally,  Mr.  Deutsch  described  the  photographs  with  Hebrew 
and  Samaritan  inscriptions  (see  Atlienseum,  No.  2018),  con- 
sisting chiefly  of  representations  of  the  famous  Samaritan. 
Scroll,  inscriptions  on  synagogues  in  Galilee,  and  the  pro- 
bably most  ancient  Samaritan  epigraph  on  a  stone  immured 
in  a  wall  of  a  mosque  near  Nablus, — the  reading  of  which,  he 
has  been  able  fully  to  restore, — which  were  brought  home 


158  LECTURE  ON  SEMITIC  PALAEOGRAPHY 

by  the  first  expedition  set  on  foot  by  the  Exploration  Fund. 
Erom  the  future  activity  of  this  association  Mr.  Deutsch 
expected  valuable  results  also  for  those  sciences  which  had 
formed  the  theme  of  his  paper. 

Mr.  Deutsch  concluded  by  briefly  recapitulating  the 
various  points  of  interest  connected  with  the  pursuit  of  these 
.studies,  and  the  large  gain  derived  from  them  for  the  varied 
disciplines  of  human  knowledge.  Semitic  Palaeography  and 
Epigraphy  supplied  one  of  the  strongest  links  in  that  chain 
which  binds  the  remotest  ages  to  our  own;  and  visibly 
represent,  as  it  were,  the  undying  continuity  and  solidarity 
of  civilized  humanity. 


(    159    ) 


VI. 

NOTES  OF  THREE  LECTURES  ON 
SEMITIC  CULTURE.1 

MAY  29,  1869. 

MR.  DEUTSCH  alluded  first  to  his  recent  but  hurried  journey 
through  the  lands  of  Shem,  and  described  with  much  vivid- 
ness the  ancient  cities  of  Jerusalem,  Damascus,  Tyre  and 
Sidon,  now  in  sadness,  but  yet  full  of  intensity  of  life  and 
beauty :  and  spoke  of  the  touching  sight  of  the  faces,  with 
their  thousand  years  of  woe  written  in  them,  that  lean  against 
the  wailing-place  on  the  walls  of  Jerusalem.  He  then 
glanced  very  briefly  at  the  intellectual  work  achieved  by  the 
nations  conventionally  called  Shemites,  and  the  influence 
exercised  by  them  upon  the  life  and  thought  of  the  ancient 
and  modern  world.  The  term,  vaguely  applied  as  it  is  to 
Assyrians,  Chaldeans,  Babylonians,  Syrians,  Ethiopians, 
Phoenicians,  Hebrews,  Arabs,  and  other  kindred  races,  was, 
he  said,  an  acknowledged  misnomer,  embracing  certain 
descendants  of  Ham,  such  as  the  Phoenicians  and  Ethiopians, 
and  excluding  others,  descendants  of  Shem,  such  as  Elamites, 
Assyrians,  and  Babylonians,  as  enumerated  in  the  genea- 
logical table  in  Genesis.  These  peoples  have  ever  been 
grouped  together  as  speaking  what  were  called  the  Oriental 
tongues ;  but  at  the  end  of  the  last  century,  the  gigantic 
linguistic  discoveries  in  the  realms  of  Eastern  philology — 
notably  of  Sanskrit  and  Zend — imperiously  called  for  some 
clear  and  specific  name  to  distinguish  them  from  the  Aryan 
or  Sanskrit-speaking  peoples.  To  each  and  every  term  some 
objection  was  raised,  until  the  one  that  was  on  all  hands 

1  Delivered  at  the  Eoyal  Institution,  Albemarle  Street. 


160          NOTES  OF  THREE  LECTURES 

allowed  to  be  utterly  and  hopelessly  wrong,  the  term  Semitic,, 
was  unanimously  received,  and  has  been  perpetuated  to  this 
day.  All  these,  and  particularly  the  Phoenicians,  Hebrews, 
and  Arabs,  exhibit  some  most  striking  common  features. 
Apart  from  their  languages,  which  are  identical  as  to  funda- 
mental elements  and  structure,  there  are  found  among  them 
all  certain  traits  of  character,  partly  traceable  to  the  very 
nature  of  the  Semitic  homesteads;  such  as  pliability  com- 
bined with  iron  fixedness  of  purpose,  depth  and  force,  yearn- 
ing for  dreamy  ease,  together  with  the  capacity  for  hardest 
work,  and  the  love  of  abstract  thought.  But  of  all  their 
gifts  the  one  that  has  told  most  upon  humanity,  and  left 
upon  it  their  impress  for  all  times  to  come,  touching  upon 
its  highest  problems  and  fixing  its  noblest  aims,  is  that  to 
them,  to  the  Shemites  alone,  we  owe  our  spiritual  conception 
of  the  Deity — monotheism.  No  Aryan,  however  elevated  in 
mind,  could  have  formed  that  idea  of  God  which  would  seem 
to  have  been  innate  in  the  Semitic  mind.  Yet  so  far  from 
this  conception  arising  from  an  "instinct,"  as  has  been 
asserted,  it  is  the  product  of  a  series  of  reflections,  which,, 
clad  in  legendary  garb,  still  form  one  of  the  favourite  topics 
of  Semitic  folk-lore.  Yet,  paradoxical  though  it  may  seem,, 
this  "instinct  "  did  not  prevent  the  Shemites,  with  one  excep- 
tion, from  being  "  idolaters."  And  this  one  exception,  the 
Jews,  did  not  really  cease  to  be  idolaters  until  all  the  horrors 
of  fire  and  sword,  of  war,  exile,  and  the  utter  blotting  out  of 
political  existence,  had  come  upon  them  :  punishments  all  of 
which  are  ascribed  to  this  very  deviation  from  monotheism. 
And  yet  a  sharp  distinction  is  visible  between,  for  instance, 
the  Indo-Germanic  and  the  Semitic  mythology,  or  rather 
conception  of  the  Cosmos  and  its  ruling  spirits.  There  never 
was  a  real  division  of  powers  in  the  Semitic  system,  notwith- 
standing its  apparent  Dualism.  Pantheism  in  the  Greek 
sense  is  utterly  unknown  to  the  Shemites.  Nature  is 
nothing  but  that  which  has  been  begotten,  and  is  ruled 
absolutely  by  the  one  Great  Absolute  Power.  And  only  in 
the  more  or  less  abstract  conception  of  this  one  Power  are 
found  what  differences  there  do  exist  in  the  Semitic  creeds 
in  their  respective  stages.  There  is  but  one  name  for  this 


ON  SEMITIC  CULTURE.  161 

Being:  Baal,  El,  Elohim,  Allah,  Elyon,  Astarte-Tanis— 
meaning  one  and  all  of  them,  Might,  Almighty,  Omnipotent, 
the  Divine  Judge — while  Jehovah  denotes  the  mercy  which 
revokes  and  tears  up  the  dread  decree  before  it  is  carried  into 
execution.  Abraham  and  his  descendants  were  the  first 
apostles  of  conscious  and  absolute  monotheism. 

Semitic  arts  and  sciences,  though  of  the  strongest  possible 
influence  upon  Europe,  always  remained  inferior — or  pro- 
portionately less  developed — to  those  of  the  West,  which 
they  had  to  a  certain  extent  begotten ;  while  their  literature 
in  some  instances  stands  absolutely  foremost,  and  rules 
supreme  to  this  day.  The  Shernites,  from  some  strange 
idiosyncrasy,  perpetuated  by  religious  ordinances,  abhorred, 
all  of  them,  at  certain  stages,  the  making  visible  pictures 
of  things  they  revered,  loved,  worshipped.  And  all  the 
intensity  of  their  most  intense  souls,  their  loves  and  their 
yearnings,  took  refuge  in  the  realms  of  imagination.  The 
greatest  charm  of  these  tales  and  songs  consists  just  in  this, 
that,  however  unearthly  and  ethereal  are  the  beings  intro- 
duced, they  are  always  most  thoroughly  human,  thus  appeal- 
ing to  our  best  and  most  catholic  sympathies.  The  great 
storehouse,  the  Midrash,  teems  with  gems  that  have  been 
scattered  broadcast  over  not  merely  the  whole  Jewish  and 
Mohammedan,  but  over  also  the  classical  and  Christian 
world,  together  with  all  those  other  elements  of  civilisation 
and  refinement  which  the  Shemites  never  ceased  to  impart 
to  our  Western  lands.  A  passing  allusion  was  here  made  to 
the  strange,  mysterious  instinct,  so  to  say,  that  has  ever  and 
will  ever  draw  both  peoples  and  individuals  to  the  Semitic 
East,  to  seek  some  balm,  or  comfort,  or  light.  The  Crusades 
were  nothing  more  nor  less  than  the  outcome  of  one  of  these 
wild  yearnings  eastwards  that" had  spread  over  Europe;  and 
the  only  tangible  results  from  them  were  certain  beautiful 
Saga-cycles,  which  we  now  call  mediaeval,  which  will  be  said 
and  sung  as  long  as  humanity  endures.  He  then  dwelt  upon 
the  characteristics  of  the  Shemitic  language,  where  the  con- 
sonants are  everything  and  the  vowels  nothing :  the  poverty 
of  flexion  and  crudeness  of  syntax,  as  compared  with  the 
Indo-Germanic  languages. 

M 


162  NOTES  OF  THREE  LECTURES 

Turning  to  the  principal  nations,  mentioned  individually, 
Mr.  Deutscli  first  drew  a  sketch  of  Babylonian  culture,  such 
as  it  is  revealed,  however  fragmentarily,  by  the  semi-fabulous 
records  said  to  be  written  by  Berosus,  the  priest  of  Bel,  and 
by  such  surviving  ruins  as  the  "  Tower  of  Babel  "  with  their 
cuneiform  records,  and  pointed  out  how  strong  had  been  its 
influence  upon  those  Shemites  who  lived  in  the  full  light 
of  history.  He  touched  upon  the  creed  and  the  concomitant 
tenets  and  rites  of  the  Babylonians,  essentially  a  worship 
of  the  Hosts  of  Heaven,  much  inveighed  against  by  the 
Prophets.  Their  chief  worship  was  of  Baal,  Bel,  the  Sun, 
and  of  Mylitta  or  Astarte,  the  moon,  the  female  principle : 
the  planets,  the  stars,  birds,  fishes,  &c.  The  result  of  this 
devotion  to  supernatural  as  well  as  natural  objects  was  three- 
fold ;  it  led  to  astrology,  astronomy,  and  to  the  creation  and 
maintenance  of  a  kalendar  of  singular  accuracy.  The  second 
of  these  was  utilized  by  the  seafaring  Phoenicians. 

The  Pho3nicians  form,  in  some  respects,  the  most  important 
fraction  of  the  whole  group  of  antique  nations,  notwithstand- 
ing that  they  sprung  from  the  most  obscure  and  insignificant 
families  :  this  fraction  when  settled,  was  constantly  exposed 
to  inroads  by  new  tribes,  was  utterly  conquered  and  sub- 
jected by  utter  strangers  when  it  had  taken  a  great  place 
among  nations,  and  yet  by  industry,  by  perseverance,  by 
acuteness  of  intellect,  by  unscrupulousness  and  want  of  faith, 
by  adaptability  and  pliability  when  necessary,  and  dogged 
defiance  at  other  times,  by  total  disregard  of  the  rights  of  the 
weaker,  they  obtained  the  foremost  place  in  the  history  of 
their  times,  and  the  highest  reputation  not  only  for  the 
things  they  did,  but  for  many  that  they  did  not.  They  were 
the  first  systematic  traders,  the  first  miners  and  metallur- 
gists, the  greatest  inventors  (if  we  may  apply  such  a  term  to 
those  who  kept  an  ever-watchful  look-out  for  the  inventions 
of  others  and  immediately  applied  them  to  themselves  with 
some  grand  improvements  on  the  original  idea) ;  they  were 
the  boldest  mariners,  the  greatest  colonizers,  who  at  one 
time  held  not  only  the  gorgeous  East  but  the  whole  of  the 
then  half-civilized  West  in  fee — who  could  boast  of  a  form 
of  government  approaching  to  constitutionalism ;  who  of  all 


ON  SEMITIC  CULTURE.  163 

nations  of  their  time  stood  highest  in  practical  arts  and 
sciences,  and  into  whose  laps  there  flowed  an  unceasing 
stream  of  the  world's  entire  riches,  until  the  day  came  when 
they  began  to  care  for  nothing  else,  and  the  enjoyment  of 
material  comforts  and  luxuries  took  the  place  of  the  thirst 
for  and  search  after  knowledge.  Their  piratical  prowess 
and  daring  was  undermined;  their  colonies,  grown  strong 
enough  to  stand  alone,  fell  away  from  them,  some  after  a 
hard  fight,  others  in  mutual  agreement  or  silently :  and  the 
nations,  in  whose  estimation  and  fear  they  had  held  the  first 
place  and  been  tributary  to  them,  disdained  them,  ignored 
them,  and  finally  struck  them  utterly  out  of  the  list  of 
nations,  till  they  dwindled  away  miserably,  a  warning  to 
all  who  should  come  after  them. 

Of  their  powers  of  adaptation,  we  may  take,  for  example, 
their  adoption  of  the  Babylonian  system  of  weights  and 
measures,  which  they  transmitted  through  the  Greeks  to 
Europe ;  while  in  the  matter  of  writing,  they  were  in  no 
sense  the  originators  of  the  alphabet  which  we  use  to  this 
day,  for  this  they  developed,  or  rather  simplified,  out  of  the 
so-called  cuneiforms — an  originally  hieroglyphical  or  mono- 
grainmic  kind  of  writing,  which,  by  degrees,  begot  the  most 
complicated  systems,  and  still  offers  not  inconsiderable  diffi- 
culties ;  but  their  improvements  and  modifications  of  which 
have  been  spread  over  the  whole  world. 

With  all  their  defects,  few,  if  any  people,  have  left  behind 
them  so  many  impressions  of  their  greatness,  or,  indeed,  so 
remarkable  a  name.  Thus  we  find  the  Phoenicians  steering 
by  the  Pole-star — a  discovery  of  the  highest  moment  in 
Navigation — while  the  Greeks  still  clung  to  Ursa  Major; 
and  they  sent  out  an  expedition  in  the  time  of  Necho  which 
lasted  three  years,  but  which  rounded  the  Cape  at  least  2000 
years  before  Vasco  da  Gama. 

Of  their  form  of  government  we  have  few  details,  but  it  is 
certain  that  they  practised  or  allowed  an  amount  of  freedom 
unknown  among  the  nations  around  their  earliest  homes  or 
among  whom  they  settled  as  colonists  ;  and  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that  on  the  whole  their  rule  was  beneficial  and  gener- 

M  2 


164         NOTES  OF  THREE  LECTURES 

ally  humane:  the  Greeks  and  Komans  were  indebted  to 
them  immeasurably,  and  we  ourselves  not  a  little.  About 
the  origin  of  their  name  there  has  been  considerable  doubt : 
some  deriving  it  from  phoinix,  the  date-palm,  others  con- 
necting it  directly  with  the  legend  of  Cadmus,  literally  the- 
"  man  from  the  East,"  who  appears  as  their  leader  from 
Phoenicia  to  Europe. 

The  religion  of  the  Phoenicians  was  a  Pantheistic  worship 
of  Nature.  No  nation  of  antiquity,  perhaps,  possessed  a  more- 
endless  pandemonium  than  they  did ;  a  circumstance  easily 
explained  by  their  peculiar  position  and  relations.  They 
consisted  originally  of  a  variety  of  tribes,  each  of  whom  had 
their  own  special  deities,  and  although  the  supreme  Numenor, 
the  principle  of  their  chief  deity,  was  probably  the  same  with 
both,  those  Phoenicians  who  dwelt  in  the  north  had  different 
names  and  attributes  in  some  respects  for  their  gods  from 
those  who  dwelt  in  the  south.  Their  one  peculiarity  is  that 
they  divided  their  conception  of  the  divine  essence  more 
politically,  or  geographically,  than  philosophically.  It  was 
the  local  sanctuaries  no  less  than  the  peculiar  attributes  that 
distinguish  the  different  Baalim  as  to  their  names.  Besides 
the  supreme  God  of  the  whole  country,  there  is  Baal-Zur, 
Baal-Zidon,  Baal-Hermon,  &c.,  denoting  so  many  geogra- 
phical localities.  Their  Melkart  is  not  a  special  deity,  but 
merely  means  the  king  of  the  special  city  of  that  particular 
colony.  Baal  simply  means  lord,  while  Moloch  means 
sacrifice.  Some  curious  classical  legends  are  clearly  of  Phoe- 
nician origin,  e.  g.  that  of  the  Minotaur  or  Moloch-worship 
in  Crete ;  while  one  of  their  ancient  festivals,  that  of  the 
"  wedding  of  the  land  and  sea,"  is  still  performed  every  year 
at  modern  Tyre.  The  Phoenician  form  of  government,  with 
its  king-high-priest,  its  senate  and  commons,  resembled  very 
closely  modern  constitutionalism :  thus  allowing  the  fullest 
development  of  industry  and  artistic  manufactures — manu- 
factures such  as  we  meet  with  under  their  original  Phoeniko- 
Hebrew  names  in  the  Homeric  poems.  They  were  the  in- 
ventors of  the  manufacture  of  glass  and  of  vitreous  pastes ; 
and,  for  many  centuries,  after  their  name  had  been  forgotten 
in  their  own  land,  ships,  which  we  may  well  call  Phoenician, 


ON  SEMITIC  CULTUEE.  1G5 

Conveyed  their  cargoes  of  sand  from  Mount  Carmel  to  the 
glass-factories  of  mediaeval  Venice.  In  mining  they  excelled, 
the  Lebanon  supplying  them  with  inexhaustible  stores  of  iron 
ore :  the  realistic  description  of  mining  in  the  Book  of  Job 
may  be  remembered.  Abundant  remains  are  found  of  their 
engravings  on  copper  and  gems :  while  the  mighty  blocks  of 
the  recently  excavated  wall  of  the  Temple  at  Jerusalem — 
-doubtless  the  labour  of  Solomon  by  the  hands  of  Hiram's 
men — the  still-remaining  ruins  of  Tyre  and  Aradus,  and 
probably  of  Tiryns  and  Mykena3,  attest  what  they  did  in 
their  days  of  grandeur  and  almost  unlimited  power. 

The  many-sided  development  of  Phoenician  literature,  its . 
science  and  its  belles-lettres,  its  theology  and  its  philosophy, 
whereof  but  very  few  and  suspicious  fragments  survive,  was 
sketched,  and  the  only  real  and  genuine  utterances  that  do 
exist  in  lapidary  inscriptions  were  specially  enumerated, 
These  —  commencing  with  the  inscriptions  discovered  at 
•Citium  by  Pococke  about  a  century  ago,  down  to  the  most 
recent,  in  all  about  150 — are  mostly  votive  or  dedicatory  to 
some  god  or  goddess ;  there  are,  however,  four  remarkable 
exceptions:  first,  the  two  levitical  or  priestly  tariffs,  indi- 
cating the  sum  and  the  portions  of  the  sacrifice  belonging 
to  the  ministering  functionaries,  the  one  of  which  is  in 
Marseilles,  the  other  in  the  British  Museum ;  further,  the 
celebrated  Ashmunazar  tomb  in  the  Louvre;  and  the  tri- 
lingual (Phoaniko-Greek-Latin)  inscription  of  the  altar  found 
in  Sardinia,  now  in  the  museum  at  Turin ;  the  deciphering 
of  these  writings  was  shown  to  rest  on  as  firm  a  basis  as 
that  of  any  Greek  or  Koman  or  English  lapidary  document. 
Tyre  and  Sidon,  in  their  present  condition,  were  then 
-described. 

JUNE  5. 

The  second  lecture  was  devoted  to  the  work  of  the  most 
important  representative  branch  of  that  family  of  nations 
whom  we  call  Shemitic — a  people  of  many  fates,  of  many 
names.  The  Bible  calls  them  "  the  people  of  God ; " 
Mohammed,  the  "  people  of  the  Book ;  "  Hegel  calls  them 
""  the  people  of  the  Geist ; "  we  know  them  by  the  terms 


166  NOTES  OF  THBEE  LECTURES 

Hebrews,  Israelites,  or  Jews, — terms  the  indiscriminate  use 
of  which  Mr.  Deutsch  strongly  deprecated,  inasmuch  as  these 
terms  formed  distinct  landmarks  in  the  history  of  the  people- 
under  consideration.  From  the  dark  beginnings  of  the 
Mesopotamian  times  down  to  the  Egyptian  bondage  the 
word  Hebrew — derived  from  Ibri,  meaning  from  the  other 
side  of  the  Euphrates,  or  from  Eber  the  great-grandson  of 
Shem — points  to  that  idyllic  period,  the  records  of  which 
are  more  or  less  those  of  a  family  only.  With  the  awak- 
ening of  self-consciousness  and  nationality  they  assume  the 
victory-boding  and  mysterious  name  of  Israel,  as  the  children 
of  him  who  obtained  'it  after  the  night-long  struggle  at 
Penuel ;  and  from  the  time  of  Bab)7 Ion  and  the  Great  Dis- 
persion they  are  Jews  (Yehudin),  or  descendants  of  Judah. 
The  history  of  this  last  period  is  unparalleled  in  the  annals 
of  Humanity.  It  is  among  them  that  the  Divine  Oneness- 
first  grew  into  a  dogma,  absolute,  uncompromising.  And 
speaking  of  the  period  between  the  immigration  from 
Mesopotamia  and  the  emigration  to  Egypt,  Mr.  Deutsch 
pointed  out  the  deeper  signification  of  this  emigration  than 
has  been  usually  recognized,  since  he  considered  that  it 
represents  the  course  of  education  by  which  this  people  has- 
ever  been  systematically  brought  into  contact  with  other 
nations  at  the  very  time  of  the  highest  development  of  the 
latter ;  that  Egypt,  to  which  they  went  as  rude  shepherds- 
and  huntsmen  from  the  idyllic,  simple,  twilight  life  at 
home,  was  Egypt  at  the  most  brilliant  stage,  perhaps,  of  its 
culture,  as  proved  by  the  literature,  the  arts  and  the  sciences 
of  the  time.  Yet,  at  this  very  period,  it  is  to  be  remembered^ 
the  supreme  unity  of  the  Godhead  was  taught  in  Egypt  to 
the  initiated,  although  to  the  uninitiated  it  was  veiled  in  a 
cloud  of  mystery,  ceremony,  and  symbol.  Nor  are  the  points- 
of  contact  between  the  Egyptian  and  the  Mosaic  ritual  few. 
In  the  scrolls  entombed  with  the  dead  in  those  days  the 
name  of  God  is  never  mentioned  save  in  the  guise  of  the 
phrase  Nuk-pu-nuk,  which  means  I  am  that  I  am.  The 
Mosaic  constitution,  political  and  religious,  was  explained, 
as  well  as  the  literature  begotten  at  different  stages,  re- 
flecting the  people's  mental  state  from  the  time  of  Joshua 


ON  SEMITIC  CULTURE.  167 

to  that  of  the  establishment  of  monarchy  and  the  contem- 
poraneous elevation  of  priestly  power  and  the  spread  of 
education.  Yet  even  now  they  developed  little  or  nothing 
of  the  arts  and  sciences  :  for  these  they  were  dependent  upon 
other  nations,  chiefly  the  Phoenicians,  to  whom  they  owe 
most  of  their  commerce.  It  was  with  them  that  they  under- 
took that  famous  voyage  of  discovery  from  which  they 
brought  back  those  strange  things,  with  their  purely  Sans- 
krit names,  recorded  in  the  Bible.  One  occupation  only 
seems  to  have  been  after  their  own  heart,  the  tilling  of  the 
soil. 

The  fall  of  the  monarchies  and  the  captivity,  chiefly  that 
of  Babylon,  begins  the  emphatically  Jewish  period,  which 
is  not  ended  yet.  The  story  of  the  Exile  remains  still  to  be 
written,  but  it  will  be  long  before  it  is  accomplished.  It  is 
one  of  the  most  momentous  and  problematic  of  all  times. 
Glimpses  are  revealed  to  us  of  the  state  of  culture  of  Persia 
and  Babylonia  at  that  period ;  but  never  until  the  contem- 
porary literature  is  fully  known  will  the  relation  between 
the  Yedas  and  the  Avesta,  Zoroastrianism  and  the  Talmud, 
be  revealed.  The  analogies  between  the  Persian  creed  of 
the  time  and  the  Judaism  of  the  captives  is  so  striking  that 
we  may  fairly  doubt  which  have  most  influenced  the  other ; 
we  only  see  clearly  the  extraordinary  and  radical  change 
which,  within  the  space  of  a  few  generations,  came  over  the 
exiles  under  the  influence  of  the  civilization  and  religion  of 
Persia. 

To  the  Dispersion,  which  began  with  Babylon  and  lasts  to 
this  hour,  is  principally  due  that  cosmopolitan  element  in 
Judaism  which  has  added  so  vastly  to  its  own  strength  and 
durability,  and  even,  geographically,  to  the  wonderfully 
rapid  spread  of  Christianity  in  its  beginnings.  To  this 
Babylonian  exile  must  be  traced  some  of  the  most  important 
institutions  of  the  Synagogue.  In  this  same  period  all  those 
fierce  yearnings  for  a  Deliverer,  an  Anointed,  a  Messiah- 
one  of  the  highest  and  most  ideal  conceptions  of  Humanity 
— found  their  loudest  and  most  glowing  utterance.  Then 
came  also  all  the  great  basis  of  the  further  development  of 
Judaism,  the  oral  Law,  which,  under  the  guise  of  heaping 


168          NOTES  OF  THREE  LECTUKES 

ordinance  upon  ordinance,  in  reality,  perhaps  unconsciously, 
aimed  at  the  highest  mental  liberty,  the  emancipation  of  the 
spirit  from  the  letter.     They  returned  to  Judaaa  as  brands 
plucked  from  the  burning :  they  carried  with  them  their 
writings,  few  and  scanty  in  number,  embodying  their  history 
and  their  poetry,  their  law  and  their  legends,  saved  out  of 
a  vast  multitude  of  writings  which  perished  irredeemably, 
and  is  now  only  known  to  us  in  faint  snatches  and  echoes. 
The  work  of  re-organization  was  wrought  by  the  "  Men  of  the 
Great  Synagogue  " :  the  collection  of  the  Canon  and  the  insti- 
tution of  the  Targums,  or  translations,  followed.     In  these 
popular  Aramaic  translations  they  were  anxious  to  avoid  all 
and  everything  that  could  mislead  and  puzzle  even  the  least- 
prepared  member  of  the  community  ;  all  anthropomorphisms 
and  things  transcendentally  or  mysteriously  worded  in  the 
Bible,  or  apt  to  give  offence,  were  either  omitted  or  para- 
phrased.    The  position  of  the  Meturgeman,  or  interpreta- 
tions, and  the   growth  of  Targumic  literature,  its  reputed 
authors,  and   its   influence  upon    all   later  versions, — were 
illustrated  by  numerous  examples.    Then  came  the  Masorah, 
or  diplomatic  preservation  of  the  Sacred  Text,  whose  germs 
were   also  laid  in  those  days,  chiefly  to  check  a  too  free 
handling  of  the  Scriptural  contents.     Much  was  said  of  the 
Talmud,  of  its  origin  and  growth,  of  its  manner  of  teaching 
and  preaching,  its  national  and   its  foreign   elements,   and 
the  influence  these  things  have  exercised  upon  Christianity 
and  Mohammedanism,  the  latter  of  which  grew  out  of  Judaism 
at  the  moment  when  the  great  epoch  of  Talmudical  develop- 
ment had  been  violently  brought  to  an  end.     The  worship  in 
the  Synagogue,  with  the  voluntary  prayers  current  at  the 
time,  when  the  simple  supplications  of  old  no  longer  satisfied 
the  yearnings  of  the   people,  were  explained ;  and  it  was 
shown  how  the  mental  progress  or  decay  of  the  different 
periods  were  embodied  in  the  enormous  mass  of  liturgies  in 
which  the  Jews  delighted,  every  country  and  city  composing 
their  own.     The  rise  of  Mohammedanism,  and  the  relation 
between  Muslims  and  Jews,  gave  birth  to  one  of  the  most 
brilliant  epochs  in  Hebrew  literature  under  the  Moorish  rule : 
the  Jews  and  the  Spanish- Arabs  emulating  each  other  in 


ON  SEMITIC  CULTUKE.  169 

the  renewal  of  Greek  science.  The  new-born  Arabs,  carry- 
ing everything  before  them,  and  appropriating  to  themselves 
the  learning  of  all  the  peoples  they  conquered  in  the  East 
and  West,  made  Jewish  literature  what  it  now  is,  kaleido- 
scopic, cosmopolitan.  The  period  which  commenced  with 
Maimonides  (whose  great  work,  founded  upon  the  broad 
principle  that  the  Bible  must  be  expounded  in  accordance 
with  rational  conclusions,  became  the  text-book  of  the 
mediaeval  universities),  and  which  ended  with  Moses  Mendels- 
sohn, was  one  less  of  original  production  than  of  scholastic, 
theologic,  exegetic  philosophy,  overshadowed  to  a  great 
extent  by  baneful  mystic  tendencies.  But  during  this  period 
the  art  of  printing  was  invented  ;  and  while  bigotry  called 
it  the  Black  Art  and  the  work  of  the  Devil,  the  Jews  hailed 
it  with  rapture,  and  called  it  "  a  holy  labour";  Jewish  print- 
ing-presses at  once  sprung  up  throughout  Europe.  The  new 
epoch,  however,  which  commenced  with  Mendelssohn,  is  not 
closed  yet.  The  once  proscribed  and  detested  Jews  have 
ever  since  his  day  taken  a  prominent  place  in  the  public 
and  scientific  life  of  Europe,  in  art,  in  literature,  in  finance, 
in  politics  ;  they  have  been  in  truth  the 
missionaries  of  civilization.  And  their  d^ 
fulfilled.  tf 


JUNE  12. 

This  Lecture   was   devoted   to   the 

branch  of  the  Shemites,  the  Arabs.  The  Phoenicians  came 
to  Europe  as  traders  :  the  Jews  as  fugitives  :  or  captives,  the 
Arabs  entered  it  as  conquerors.  They  inaugurated  a  reign  of 
science,  of  poetry,  of  learning,  of  culture,  such  as  had  not 
been  seen  since  the  golden  days  of  Hellas  :  a  culture  which 
has  left  its  traces  upon  Europe  to  this  day,  and  which  then 
shone,  the  only  light  in  utter  darkness,  over  a  people  bril- 
liant in  chivalry  and  song,  full  of  noble  courtesy  and  of  simple 
piety.  The  Jews  furthered  the  work  of  catholic  human 
culture:  the  Arabs  inaugurated  modern  science.  The  day 
of  the  fall  of  Granada  was  one  of  the  saddest  days  in  history. 
The  origin  of  the  primitive  Arabs  is  a  matter  of  the  pro- 


170          NOTES  OF  THREE  LECTURES 

foundest  obscurity — an  obscurity  both  natural  and  artificial, 
since  with  the  commencement  of  Mohammedanism  all  that 
had  been  was  declared  unworthy  of  record,  and  its  memorials 
were  wilfully  destroyed ;  thus  the  "time  of  ignorance,"  as  that 
whole  previous  period  was  called,  became,  indeed,  a  true  desig- 
nation. Enough,  however,  remains  to  prove  that  Arab  culture 
stood  in  high  renown  as  early  as  the  golden  period  of  Hebrew 
literature;  no  higher  praise  could  be  bestowed  upon  the 
wisdom  of  Solomon  than  that  it  was  like  unto  the  wisdom  of 
the  Arabs.  The  Queen  of  Sheba  was  an  Arab,  Job's  friends 
were  Arabs,  and  many  other  instances:  while  the  period 
shortly  before  Mohammed  was  certainly  one  of  the  most 
brilliant  in  Arabic  literature,  emphatically  as  regards  poetry, 
though  the  tale  of  the  Moallakat,  as  poems  "  suspended  "  (in 
the  Kaaba),  must  be  rejected. 

The  double  aspect  of  the  Deity  which  was  noticed  before 
as  a  general  feature  of  early  Semitic  creeds  is  found  among 
the  heathen  Arabs  as  Nur  Allah — God's  light — and  Alilat 
the  female  El,  corresponding  to  the  Baal-faced  Tanis  or 
Astoreth  of  the  Phoenicians.  There  are  vague  traces  of  a 
tree  and  stone  worship ;  the  veneration  of  certain  personified 
divine  attributes,  and  some  singular  fetishes,  with  good  and 
evil  demons,  made  up  the  early  Arab  religion,  which  Mo- 
hammed came  to  overthrow,  putting  Judaism,  more  or  less 
Arabicized,  in  its  stead.  Yet  long  before  Mohammed  these 
things  were,  even  by  the  herd,  recognised  as  mere  inter- 
mediators with  the  great  Allah,  and  their  worship  would 
have  been  abrogated  long  before  if  strong  interests  of  another 
kind  had  not  been  attached  to  their  sanctuaries.  Besides 
astrological,  genealogical,  and  dream  lore,  poetry  formed  the 
chief  part  of  ante-Mohammedan  literature ;  and  what  little 
has  come  down  of  the  latter  almost  outshines  what  has  come 
later.  The  Kasida,  the  favourite  poetical  form,  was  devoted 
to  love,  valour,  and  wisdom,  its  imagery  being  derived  from 
the  desert  solitudes  around  and  the  starry  skies  above.  In 
the  midst  of  a  nation  thus  gifted  and  prepared,  but  widely 
scattered,  and  waiting,  as  it  were,  for  some  rallying-point, 
Mohammed  was  born.  His  early  history  is  surrounded  by  a 


ON  SEMITIC  CULTUEE.  171 

legend-cycle,  yet  the  difficulties  of  arriving  at  a  rational 
account  are  not  so  great  as  in  other  cases  ;  for  the  history  of 
Islam  requires  only  the  discarding  certain  items,  such  as  his 
travels  in  Syria,  the  monk  Sergius,  and  the  rest ;  because  the 
notion  of  the  influence  of  Christianity  chiefly  rests  on  these. 
But  the  influence  of  Christianity  upon  this  new  religion, 
"  the  Eeligion  of  Abraham,"  as  Mohammed  called  it,  is  as 
scanty  as  that  of  heathenism.  Indeed,  the  basis  of  dogmatic 
Christianity,  viz.  the  Sonship  of  Christ,  Mohammed  in- 
veighed against  early  and  late. 

It  was  Judaism,  as  developed  under  the  influence  of  the 
oral  law,  which  is  principally  represented  in  the  Koran,  not 
merely  with  regard  to  certain  rabbinical  terms,  implying  the 
most  important  dogmas  and  doctrines  of  Judaism,  but  even 
some  of  the  most  minute  Talmudical  ordinances  are  bodily 
transferred  to  the  new  code.  The  explanation  of  this  pheno- 
menon is  found  not  in  isolated  personal  communications,  but 
in  the  general  position  of  the  Jews  of  Arabia,  who  repre- 
sented the  educated  and  most  influential  part  of  the  com- 
munity, and  who  had  long  prepared  the  way  for  the  intro- 
duction of  that  religion  of  Abraham  which  Mohammed  came 
to  preach  to  his  kin.  Mr.  Deutsch  described  the  nature  of 
the  new  revelation  and  the  emphatic  manner  in  which 
Mohammed  protested  against  the  idea  that  he  was  able  to 
work  miracles,  adding  that  what  were  reported  (such  as  the 
night  journey)  were  declared  to  be  visions.  The  contents  of 
the  Koran,  the  fundamental  code  of  Islamism,  were  next 
considered;  with  the  redaction  and  the  masoretic  labours 
bestowed  upon  it,  as  well  as  the  style,  varying  with  the 
periods  of  the  Prophet's  life — its  whole  tone  and  tenour,  and! 
the  almost  demoniacal  influence  the  book  has  exercised  since 
its  appearance.  The  two  chief  divisions  of  Islam,  the  practical 
and  the  dogmatical,  were  then  discussed;  and  the  general 
spirit  of  the  religion,  as  practised  by  the  Koran,  not  as- 
explained  by  some  later  commentators  and  exegetics,  was 
broadly  characterised  as  one  of  justice,  truth,  and  mercy. 

The  Sunnah  or  oral  traditions  were  then  explained,  and 
among  the  numerous  sects  which  sprang  up  within  Moham- 


172  THREE  LECTURES  ON  SEMITIC  CULTURE. 

medanism,  the  Mutazilites,  the  Sincere  Brethren,  the  Ismailis, 
were  singled  out,  and  their  bold  speculations  ending  in  the 
absolute  discarding  of  all  Kevelation  and  Supranaturalism, 
were  dwelt  upon.  Some  of  the  secret  fundamental  rules  of 
their  respective  organizations  and  their  missionary  canons, 
were  things  of  no  small  influence  upon  mediaeval  and  modern 
rationalism,  producing  a  vast  development  of  religious 
thought;  they  offer  the  best  proof  against  the  common 
assumption  that  Islam  is  identical  with  mental  and  religious 
petrifaction.  Among  the  many  points  often  repeated  without 
being  warranted  by  facts,  is  the  absolute  fallacy  of  the  notion 
that  Fatalism  is  a  doctrine  of  the  Koran :  it  teaches  the  very 
•contrary  doctrine.  Mohammed's  whole  system  is  one  of  faith 
built  on  hope  and  fear.  Nor  did  the  word  Islam  originally  be- 
token that  absolute  and  blind  submission  which  it  afterwards 
came  to  mean,  but  rather  the  being  at  peace  and  living  in 
accordance  with  God's  words  and  commands,  leading  the  life 
of  a  righteous  man ;  in  the  sense  in  which  the  derivatives  of 
the  Semitic  Salam  occur  in  early  Aramaic. 

The  Koran  for  a  time  seemed  to  stifle  all  literature;  it 
•was  God's  own  word,  and  it  was  enough.  But  Arabic  lite- 
rature, quickened  by  the  contact  with  Greek  science  and  the 
enormous  mental  activity  of  the  Jews,  began  to  develop  anew 
in  Spain,  and  became  encyclopaadic.  The  one  branch  in 
which  it  now  again  excelled  was  poetry;  yet  here  the  old 
forms,  so  well  suited  to  the  desert,  could  no  longer  be  used  in 
luxurious  city  life ;  it  soon,  however,  adapted  itself  to  all  this, 
retaining  only  a  vague,  undefinable  yearning  after  the  infinite 
that  is  strangely  beautiful.  Its  influences  upon  European 
literature — Dante,  Petrarch,  Boccaccio — are  easily  traced  ; 
and  not  unnaturally,  since  studious  youths  flocked  from  all 
parts  of  the  world  to  the  schools  and  academies  of  Spain. 
It  is  thus  that  the  Arabs,  together  with  the  Jews,  stand,  as 
it  were  at  the  cradle  of  modern  science.  Yet  there  is  cer- 
tainly now  a  pause,  or  rather  retrogression  in  the  mental 
life  of  that  great  people :  its  causes  will,  however,  most  surely 
foe  amended,  and  the  Arab  Shemite  will  once  more  take  his 
share  in  the  ruling  of  the  world's  destinies. 


VII. 
EGYPT,  ANCIENT  AND  MODERN.1 

Re-published  by  permission. 


THIS  book  is  another  proof  of  the  vast  and  wholesome 
change  that  is  gradually  taking  place  in  the  learned  litera- 
ture of  Germany.  Although  treating  of  a  most  abstruse 
subject,  it  is  yet  not  only  fit  for  human  reading,  but  is  abso- 
lutely one  of  the  most  interesting  works  which  we  have  seen 
for  some  time.  It  consists  of  a  series  of  essays  or  lectures- 
delivered  before  a  select  circle  in  Berlin,  during  the  last 
nine  years,  by  Dr.  Brugsch,  the  eminent  Egyptologist.  On 
changing  his  professorial  chair  at  the  Prussian  University 
for  his  new  official  post  at  Cairo,  he  has  published  these 
essays  as  a  farewell  gift  to  his  friends  in  Europe.  They  are 
divided  into  two  parts,  the  first  of  which  contains  sketches 
and  reminiscences  of  his  journeys  on  the  Nile,  through 
the  desert,  and  in  the  streets  of  Cairo.  Teeming  as  these 
picturesque  descriptions  are  with  valuable  and  interesting 
remarks,  we  refrain  from  dwelling  upon  them.  We  prefer  to 
reserve  our  space  for  the  second  part,  in  which  the  latest 
results  of  hieroglyphic  science  are  put  before  us  in  so  lucid 
and  fascinating  a  manner  that  we  are  apt  to  forget  at  times 
how  enormous  were  the  labours  which  produced  them. 

The  first  essay  of  the  second  part  is  entitled  "  An  Ancient 
Egyptian  Fairy  Tale  ;  the  Oldest  Fairy  Tale  in  the  World." 
It  is  the  first  German,  and  altogether  the  first  complete,  ver- 
sion of  the  celebrated  papyrus  acquired  by  Mrs.  D'Orbiney 
in  1852,  which  is  now  in  the  British  Museum.  Although, 


1  This  article  appeared  in  the 
'  Saturday  Review '  for  December  9, 
1865,  and  reviewed  the  following 


work  :  — '  Aus  dem  Orient.'  Von 
Heinrich  Brugsch.  Zwei  Theile. 
Berlin:  Grosse. 


174  EGYPT,  ANCIENT  AND  MODERN. 

Dr.  Brugsch  says,  the  text  has  for  years  been  before  the 
learned  world,  nothing  but  extracts  from  it — of  which  we 
gave  an  account  some  time  ago — have  been  translated  as 
yet.  And  he  adds  quaintly,  that  this  first  version  is  not  a 
philological  trick  nor  altogether  an  offspring  only  of  his  own 
fancy.  "My  humble  merit  is  confined  simply  and  solely  to 
the  application  to  a  given  text  of  the  rules  of  hieroglyphical 
grammar,  which  in  these  days  have  become  the  common 
property  of  science  " — a  statement  of  which  the  followers  of 
Sir  G.  Cornewall  Lewis  will  do  well  to  make  a  note.  This 
papyrus  dates  from  the  fourteenth  century  B.C.,  when  Pha- 
raoh Eamses  Miamun,  the  founder  of  Pithom  and  Kamses, 
ruled  at  Thebes,  and  literature  celebrated  its  highest 
triumphs  at  his  brilliant  court.  Nine  pre-eminent  savans 
were  attached  to  the  person  of  this  king,  the  contemporary 
of  Moses.  At  their  head  stood,  as  "  Master  of  the  Kolls,"  a 
certain  Kagabu,  unrivalled  in  elegance  of  style  and  diction. 
It  was  he,  probably,  who  officiated  as  Keeper  at  that  vast 
Library  at  Thebes  of  which  classical  writers  speak  as  having 
borne  the  inscription  "  -x/rt^r}?  larpelov  " — somewhat  similar 
to  Frederic  II.'s  inscription  over  the  Eoyal  Library  at 
Berlin,  "  Nutrimentum  Spiritus."  This  hieroglyphic  docu- 
ment is  the  only  one  hitherto  known  which  belongs  to  the 
world  of  fiction.  Hymns,  exhortations,  historical  records, 
accounts  of  journeys,  general  essays,  eulogies  on  kings,  and 
bills,  form  the  general  staple  of  that  very  brittle  literature. 
Written  expressly  "  in  usum  Delphini  " — namely,  for  the 
Crown  Prince,  Seti  Menephta,  son  of  Barneses  II. — our 
papyrus  bears  the  following  critical  note,  or  mark  of  official 
censorship  : — "  Found  worthy  to  be  wedded  to  the  names  of 
the  Pharaonic  Scribe  Kagabu  and  the  Scribe  Hora  and  the 
Scribe  Meremapu.  Its  author  is  the  Scribe  Annana,  the 
proprietor  of  this  scroll.  May  the  God  Toth  guard  all 
the  words  contained  in  this  scroll  from  destruction ! "  In 
language  and  manner  it  resembles  most  of  the  productions 
of  its  classical  period.  It  is  lucid  and  clear,  and  though  full 
of  poetical  fancy,  yet  simple  and  unaffected,  reminding  the 
reader  occasionally  of  the  grand  simplicity  in  word  and 


EGYPT,  ANCIENT  AND  MODEKN.  175 

thought  found  in  Scripture.  It  further  resembles  the  latter 
in  its  occasional  monotony  and  repetitions  ;  both,  however, 
drawbacks  common  to  nearly  all  the  early  documents  of 
different  literatures.  The  tale  itself  is  rather  a  curious 
one  to  be  selected  for  the  special  reading  of  a  young  prince. 
Its  "motive7*  is  the  same  as  in  the  story  of  Joseph  and 
Potiphar's  wife.  The  chief  persons  are  two  brothers  and  the 
wife  of  the  elder  one,  who  brings  a  false  accusation  against 
her  young  brother-in-law.  The  latter  saves  himself  from 
his  brother's  wrath,  and  goes,  aided  by  the  Sun-God,  through 
a  peculiar  transformation.  The  wife  meets  her  well-deserved 
fate,  and  the  two  brothers  are  in  the  end  restored  to  each 
other's  esteem  and  love,  and  the  elder  becomes  regent  of 
Egypt.  Apart  from  the  general  literary  interest  attaching 
to  this  relic  of  more  than  three  thousand  years  ago — which 
gains  a  peculiar  significance  from  the  fact  that  it  was  first 
written  and  read  at  the  very  Court  of  Kamses  II.  at  which 
Moses  was  educated — it  incidentally  reveals  so  much  of  the 
manners  and  customs,  the  notions  and  views,  of  that  peculiar 
era  of  ancient  Egypt,  that  we  cannot  be  too  grateful  for  its 
almost  miraculous  preservation. 

Of  more  vital  interest,  however,  are  those  hieroglyphic 
discoveries  which  enable  us  to  trace  the  sojourn  of  the  Israel- 
ites in  Egypt,  in  its  monuments.  Almost  all  recent  investi- 
gators of  this  subject  agree  that  the  time  between  the  immi- 
gration and  the  Exodus  formed  part  of  one  of  the  most 
glorious  epochs  of  Pharaonic  rule — namely,  that  of  the 
eighteenth  dynasty.  For  twenty  centuries  Egyptian  sove- 
reigns had  held  all  the  country  in  undisturbed  possession, 
when  suddenly,  pushed  by  the  Assyrians,  Shemitic  hordes 
broke  into  the  Eastern  Delta  and  seized  upon  it,  gradually 
extending  their  dominions  so  as  to  make  even  the  kings  of 
Upper  Egypt  tributary.  For  more  than  five  hundred  years 
the  Egyptians  bore  the  yoke  of  these  foreign  conquerors — 
called  in  the  inscriptions  either  "  Amu,"  i.  e.  "  shepherds  of 
oxen,"  or  "  Aadu,"  "  detested,  wicked  ones  " — whose  kings 
held  court  at  Tanis  (Hauar,  Avaris)  in  much  prouder  style 
than  the  Theban  monarchs  themselves.  Who  were  the 


176  EGYPT,  ANCIENT  AND  MODERN. 

gallant  and  skilful  generals  who,  by  a  few  bold  strokes,  re- 
conquered the  independence  of  Egypt,  and  expelled  or 
utterly  subdued  the  foreign  population,  is  not  known.  But 
this  reverse  to  the  fortunes  of  the  native  Pharaohs  happened, 
we  know  for  certain,  during  that  eighteenth  Theban  dynasty, 
and  the  three  centuries  that  followed  form  the  most  flourish- 
ing period  of  Egyptian  history.  Egyptian  armies  penetrated 
into  Palestine,  marched  along  the  royal  road  by  Gaza  and 
Megiddo  to  the  banks  of  the  Euphrates  and  Tigris,  made 
Babylon  and  Nineveh  tributary,  and  erected  their  last  vic- 
torious columns  on  the  borders  of  Armenia,  where,  as  the 
hieroglyphic  texts  have  it,  Heaven  rests  on  its  four  pillars. 
No  doubt  these  conquests  in  Asia,  and  the  thousands  and 
thousands  of  Shemitic  prisoners  whom  the  conquerors  carried 
home  as  slaves,  were  looked  upon  in  the  light  of  reprisals  for 
the  long  period  of  Shemitic  oppression.  Endless  are  the 
processions  of  figures  on  the  gigantic  and  apparently  in- 
destructible temple  walls  erected  by  these  wretched  Asiatic 
prisoners,  representing  them  in  the  act  of  carrying  water  to- 
knead  the  mortar,  forming  bricks  in  wooden  frames,  spread- 
ing them  out  to  dry  in  the  sun,  carrying  them  to  the 
buildings  in  the  course  of  erection,  and  the  like;  all  this 
being  done  under  the  eye  of  Egyptian  officials,  lounging 
about  armed  with  weighty  sticks,  while  different  inscriptions 
inform  us  of  the  nature  of  the  special  work  done  by  these 
"  prisoners  whom  the  King  has  taken,  that  they  might  build 
temples  to  his  gods." 

About  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century  before  our  era, 
there  arose  a  new  dynasty,  the  nineteenth,  at  the  head  of 
which  stands  Kameses  I.  It  is  under  the  long  rule  of  his 
grandson,  Kameses  II.,  who  mounted  the  throne  at  about 
1400,  that  we  meet  with  the  first  monumental  hints  re- 
garding the  events  recorded  in  Scripture.  This  Per-aa  or 
Pher-ao — literally  "High  House"-  — who  reigned  sixty-six 
years,  erected,  so  the  hieroglyphical  sources  tell  us,  a  chain 
of  forts  or  fortified  cities  from  Pelusium  to  Heliopolis,  of 
which  the  two  principal  ones  bore  the  names  of  "  Kameses  " 
and  "  Pachtum,"  our  biblical  "  Pithom  "  ;  both  situated  in 


EGYPT,  ANCIENT  AND^MODERN.  177 

the  present  Wadi  Tumilat,  near  the  sweet-water  canal  that 
joined  the  Nile  with  the  Red  Sea.  Papyri  of  the  time  of 
this  "  Pharaoh  of  the  Exodus "  give  a  glowing  description 
of  those  new  strongholds.  In  the  Papyrus  Anastasi  (in  the 
British  Museum),  the  scribe  Pinebsa  reports  to  his  superior, 
Amenenaput,  how  very  "  sweet "  and  "  incomparable  "  life  is 
in  Barneses,  how  "  its  plains  swarm  with  people,  its  fields  with 
birds,  and  its  ponds  and  canals  with  fishes ;  how  the  meadows 
glitter  with  balmy  flowers,  the  fruits  taste  like  unto  honey, 
and  the  corn-houses  and  barns  overflow  with  grain."  This 
official  further  describes  the  splendid  reception  given  to  the 
king  at  his  first  entry  (in  the  tenth  year  of  his  reign)  into 
the  new  city,  and  how  the  people  pressed  forward  to  salute 
"  him,  great  in  victory."  We  even  find  the  very  name  of 
the  Hebrews  recorded  in  the  official  reports  of  the  day.  A 
papyrus  in  the  Museum  of  Leyden  contains  the  following, 
addressed  by  the  scribe  Kauitsir  to  his  superior,  the  scribe 
Bakenptah  :— 

"  May  my  Lord  find  satisfaction  in  my  having  complied  with  the  in- 
struction my  Lord  gave  me,  saying,  Distribute  the  rations  among  the 
soldiers,  and  likewise  among  the  Hebrews^  (Apuru)  who  carry  the  stones 
to  the  great  city  of  King  Eameses-Miamun,  the^lover  of  truth  ;  [and  who 
are]  under  the  orders  of  the  Captain  of  the  police-soldiers,  Ameneman.  I 
distribute  the  food  among  them  monthly,  according  to  the  excellent  in- 
structions which  my  Lord  has  given  me." 

Similar  distinct  indications  of  the  people  and  their  state  of 
serfdom  are  found  in  another  Leyden  ["papyrus,  and  even  in 
the  long  rock-inscription  of  Hamamat.  Joseph  had  never 
been  at  the  court  of  an  Egyptian  Pharaoh,  but  at  that  of 
one  of  those  Shemite  kings  of  Avaris-Tanis  ;  and  when,  after 
the  expulsion  of  this  foreign  dynasty  and  the  quick  ex- 
tinction of  the  one  which  overthrew  it,  Rameses  had  come 
to  the  throne,  it  was  natural  enough  that  "he  knew  not 
Joseph." 

The  Exodus  took  place  under  Menephtes,  the  successor  of 
that  second  Eameses  in  the  sixth  year  of  whose  reign  Moses 
probably  was  born.  In  the  twenty-first  year  of  his  rule, 
Kameses  had  concluded  a  treaty  with  the  Hittites,  the  text 

N 


178  EGYPT,  ANCIENT  AND  MODERN. 

of  which  is  found  cut  into  a  stone-wall  at  Thebes,  and  in 
which  occurs  the  following  important  passage : — "  If  the 
subjects  of  King  Barneses  should  come  to  the  King  of 
the  Hittites,  the  King  of  the  Hittites  is  not  to  receive  them,, 
but  to  force  them  to  return  to  Barneses  the  King  of  Egypt." 
This  sufficiently  explains  the  fear  expressed  by  the  biblical 
Pharaoh,  lest  the  people  might  "  go  up  from  the  land."  The 
Shemitic  population,  subdued  and  enslaved  as  they  were, 
had  one  glowing  desire  only — to  escape  from  Egypt,  and 
join  their  brethren  at  home  in  their  wars  against  the 
Pharaohs. 

The  name  of  Moses  is  now  universally  recognised  to  be  of 
Egyptian  origin.  It  is  the  Mas  or  Massu  of  rather  frequent 
occurrence  on  the  monuments,  and  means  "  child."  A 
certain  connection  of  Egyptian  ideas  with  the  Mosaic  legis- 
lation, its  sacrifices,  purifications,  &c.,  is  also  no  longer 
questioned.  But  there  is  one  most  important  monumental 
testimony,  which  is  not  sufficiently  recognised  yet,  and 
which  fully  proves  that  to  those  far-famed  Egyptian  adepts 
of  priestly  wisdom  the  sublime  doctrine  of  the  Unity  of  the 
Deity  was  well  known,  and  that  the  manifold  forms  of 
the  Egyptian  Pantheon  were  nothing  but  religious  masks,  so 
to  speak — grotesque  allegorical  embodiments  of  that  origi- 
nally pure  dogma  communicated  to  the  initiated  in  the 
Mysteries.  And  the  initiated  took  their  sublime  Confession 
of  Faith,  inscribed  upon  a  scroll,  with  them  even  into  the 
grave.  The  name  of  the  One  God,  however,  is  not  men- 
tioned on  it,  but  is  expressed  only  in  the  circumlocution, 
NuJc  pu  Nuk — "  I  am  he  who  I  am."  Who  does  not  instantly 
remember  the  awful  "  I  am  that  1  am  "  sounding  from  amid 
the  flames  of  the  bush  ? 

We  shall  not  further  pursue  these  and  similar  points  of 
high  importance  touched  upon  in  the  essay  inscribed  "Moses 
and  the  Monuments,"  but  turn  to  a  chapter  quaintly  entitled 
"  What  the  Stones  are  Saying."  It  is  the  vast  and  varied 
number  of  stone  inscriptions  found  in  Egyptian  tombs  of 
which  Dr.  Brugsch  here  treats.  He  finds  the  reason  for  the 
people  dwelling  during  their  lifetime  in  tents  of  mud,  but 


EGYPT,  ANCIENT  AND  MODEBN.  179 

erecting  everlasting  monuments  for  their  corpses,  in  their 
firm  conviction  of  the  existence  of  another,  an  everlasting, 
world,  to  which  this  present  one  is  merely  the  entrance-hall. 
While  a  general  inscription  on  the  walls  of  these  tombs 
uniformly  exhorts  the  living  to  praise  the  Deity  gladly,  to 
leave  all  earthly  things  behind  when  the  parting  moment 
arrives,  and  to  pray  for  the  dead,  there  are  others  upholding 
most  characteristically  the  advantages  and  the  high  rank 
possessed  by  the  literatus  in  comparison  with  all  other  ranks 
and  professions.  Thus  many  are  found  like  the  following : — 

"  What  does  all  this  talk  about  an  officer  being  better  off  than  a  scholar 
amount  to  ?  Just  look  at  an  officer's  life,  and  see  how  manifold  are  his 
miseries.  While  still  young  he  is  shut  up  in  a  military  school.  He  is 
there  punished  until  they  make  his  head  to  bleed  ;  he  is  stretched  out  and 
beaten.  After  that,  he  is  sent  to  the  wars  into  Syria.  He  must  wander 
on  rocky  heights,  he  has  to  carry  his  bread  and  drink  suspended  from  his 
arm,  like  unto  a  beast  of  burden.  The  water  he  gets  is  foul.  Then  he  is 
marched  off  to  mount  guard  over  the  tent.  After  that,  the  enemy  arrives 
and  catches  him,  as  in  a  mousetrap.  Should  he,  however,  be  lucky 
enough  to  return  to  Egypt,  he  will  only  be  like  a  worm-eaten  block  of 
wood.  Should  he  be  sick,  he  is  put  on  a  litter  and  carried  on  a  donkey's 
back.  His  things,  meanwhile,  are  stolen  by  thieves,  and  his  attendants 
run  away." 

Truly  a  picture  of  an  Egyptian  soldier's  life  worthy  of 
Joseph  Bertha,  le  Conscrit.  But  other  trades  and  professions 
fare  no  better  when  contrasted  with  the  savant's  noble  state. 
There  are  similar  caricatures  from  the  farmer's  or  peasant's 
life,  down  to  that  of  the  barber,  "  who  has  to  run  from  inn 
to  inn  to  get  customers."  Out  of  this  high  opinion  of,  and 
eager  desire  for,  literary  education  and  refinement,  there 
grew  almost  naturally  an  eminently  high  ethical  and  moral 
code  of  feeling.  Take  the  following  inscription  over  a  tomb 
at  El-Kalb,  over  four  thousand  years  old : — "  He  loved  his 
father,  he  honoured  his  mother,  he  loved  his  brother,  and 
never  left  his  house  with  an  angry  heart.  A  man  of  high 
position  was  never  preferred  by  him  to  a  humbler  man." 
There  are  many  traces  even  of  that  chivalrous  deference  to 
women  which  is  always  found  in  highly-cultivated  nations. 
The  names  of  the  husbands  are  more  often  omitted  in  the 

N  2 


180  EGYPT,  ANCIENT  AND  MODERN. 

genealogical  tablets  than  those  of  the  "  Ladies  of  the  House," 
whose  principal  ornament,  the  stones  record,  wa's  their  "  love 
to  their  wedded  lords."  They  are  called  in  the  inscriptions 
— not  generally  given  to  poetic  phraseology — "  the  beautiful 
palms,  whose  fruit  was  tender  love,"  and  the  most  glorious 
present  accorded  to  the  favourites  of  the  Gods  is  "  the  esteem 
of  men  and  the  love  of  women." 

The  last  chapter  in  the  book  is  a  valuable  contribution  to 
comparative  Indo-Germanic  mythology,  treating  of  certain 
Sagas  found  both  in  Firdusi  and  the  Nibelungen,  and  of  a 
number  of  mysterious  customs  and  notions  common  to  both 
Persians  and  Germans.  Although  this  is  no  less  replete 
with  interesting  facts  and  speculations  than  the  foregoing 
essays,  we  cannot  further  enlarge  upon  it  here.  All  we  can 
do  is  once  more  to  thank  the  eminent  author,  now  dwelling 
in  that  land  which  already  has  revealed  to  him  so  many  of 
its  secrets,  and  to  express  the  hope  that,  notwithstanding  his 
many  official  and  editorial  occupations,  he  will  find  leisure 
again  to  speak  to  us  thus  pleasantly  of  Pharaonic  scrolls 
and  stones. 


VIII. 
HERMES    TEISMEGISTUS.1 

Re-publislted  by  permission. 


FEW  figures  in  the  Pantheon  of  the  ancient  world  are  as 
many-sided  and  mysterious  as  Hermes,  the  antique  imper- 
sonation of  Thought.  It  is  he  who  institutes  and  practises  all 
sciences,  all  arts,  all  professions.  A  god  himself,  he  is  also 
the  Divine  councillor  and  messenger,  charioteer  and  cup- 
bearer. He  is,  further,  an  astronomer,  a  legislator,  a  priest, 
a  physician.  He  plays  the  lyre,  he  boxes,  he  tends  the  cattle. 
He  is  the  keeper  of  dreams,  a  merchant,  a  thief,  and  an 
author.  With  the  profoundest  wisdom  and  the  most  recon- 
dite lore,  he  combines  the  capability  of  playing  cunning  tricks 
and  coarse  practical  jokes.  As  multifarious  as  his  talents 
and  his  trades  are  also  his  emblems,  his  native  countries,  his 
parentages,  and  his  names.  In  Egypt  he  is — albeit  self- 
created — the  son  of  the  Nile  and  of  Isis,  and  wears  the  head 
of  an  ibis.  He  presides  over  the  moon,  defends  the  good 
souls  in  Hades,  and  inscribes  the  names  of  the  kings  on  the 
tree  of  life  in  Paradise.  The  wrigglings  of  a  serpent  have 
taught  him  the  art  of  hieroglyphics,  and  his  own  name  is 
first  spelt  in  these  new  signs,  whence  perhaps  its  many 
variants — Toth,  Teti,  Teut,  &c.  In  Phoenicia  he  is  one  of 
the  eight  mystic  Kabiri,  or  mighty  ones.  His  father  is  the 
Heaven,  his  mother  the  Day.  He  invents  mining  and  metal- 
lurgy, medicine  and  the  alphabet — the  same,  by  the  way, 
which  we  use  in  these  days.  His  Phoenician  name  is  Kadinus, 


1  This    article    appeared     in     the  ,  complete,  prece'dee   d'une  e'tude  sur 

'  Saturday  Keview '  for  March  30, 1867,  j  1'origine  des  livres  hermetiques,  par 

and  reviewed  the  following  work : —  |  L.   Menard.     Ouvrage    couronne  de 
'  Hermes    Trismegiste.'      Traduction  j  ITnstitut.     Paris :  Didier  et  Cie. 


182  HEKMES  TRISMEGISTUS. 

the  Primeval  or  Eastern ;  also  Taaut.  Passing  over  the 
many  various  denominations  and  occupations  assigned  to  the 
great  cosmopolitan  by  the  Babylonians,  Pelasgians,  Etruscans, 
and  other  but  vaguely-known  peoples,  we  find  him  in  Greece 
as  the  son  of  Zeus  and  Maia.  How,  but  four  hours  old,  he 
steals  and  eats  two  oxen  of  Apollo,  and  forthwith  invents  the 
lyre,  whereby  he  soothes  both  him  and  Zeus,  is  well  known. 
It  is  he  also  who  chains  Prometheus,  kills  Argus,  liberates 
lo,  conducts  the  goddesses  before  Paris,  and  does  the  thou- 
sand and  one  other  things  in  which,  under  the  guise  of 
allegory,  the  myths  seem  to  indicate  various  progressive 
stages  of  culture.  In  Eome,  where  his  rude  statue  in  the 
earliest  days  held  a  purse,  his  name  was  Mercury — from 
mercari,  to  traffic.  Merchants  used  to  dip  laurel  rods  into  a 
well  near  the  Porta  Capena  sacred  to  him.  What  stages  he 
and  his  mystic  worship  passed  through  there,  until  in  the 
latter  days  he  was  identified  with  Anubis  himself,  we  cannot 
tell.  Equally  characteristic,  however,  is  the  manner  in 
which  by  slow  degrees  the  archaic  trunks  or  pillars  that 
were  intended  to  represent  him  were  endowed  with  a  bearded 
head,  with  a  certain  symbolic  emblem — the  removal  of  which 
caused  Alcibiades'  downfall — with  the  petasus,  the  caduceus, 
the  palm-tree ;  and  how  every  successive  generation  of  artists 
added  some  new  improvement,  until  at  last  he  grew  into  that 
beautiful,  half-dreamy,  half-artful,  beardless  youth  of  glorious 
proportions,  such  as  we  know  him  in  the  Vatican  and  in  the 
British  Museum. 

When  the  gods  of  Greece  and  Eome  went  into  exile — 
either  degraded  into  evil  spirits  or  promoted  into  Christian 
saints — he  returned  to  the  East.  Taaut-Kadmus-Hermes- 
Mercury- Anubis  reappears  in  Arabic  and  Persian  legends  as 
Henoch  or  Idris,  the  Mahommedan  Elijah.  Pitiful  is  the 
way  in  which  some  Arabic  writers  try  to  spell  his  epithet  of 
Trismegistus,  and  the  elaborate  manner  in  which  they  explain 
it.  Three  times,  they  say,  was  he  born ;  in  three  different 
places — in  Babylonia,  in  Egypt,  in  Greece ;  and  three  times 
did  he  go  through  life  without  sin.  Further,  he  was  king, 
philosopher,  and  priest ;  or  was,  did,  or  did  not  any  three 


HEKMES  TRISMEG1STUS.  183 

other  different  things.  But  the  middle  ages  were  as  puzzled 
about  this  figure  as  was  antiquity  itself.  Everything  about 
Hermes  seemed  a  mystery  and  an  allegory. 

To  add  to  the  bewilderment,  he  had  also  written  Egyptian 
books.  Clemens  of  Alexandria  ascribes  to  him  42 ;  Jambli- 
chus,  20,000;  Manetho  the  exact  number  of  36,525.  Whether 
these  are  the  years  of  a  sacred]  Egyptian  cycle,  or  so  many 
verses,  distichs  or  hemistichs,  or  whether  they  are  merely  a 
round  figure  to  express  the  enormous  bulk  of  sacerdotal 
writings  which  Egypt  produced,  is  of  small  importance  here. 
Suffice  it  to  notice  that  everything  above  and  below  earth 
and  heaven  was  supposed  to  be  treated  in  these  books — from 
the  most  divine  mysteries  of  cosmogony  and  the  essence  of 
God,  to  the  discipline  of  kings  and  geography.  But  no  pro- 
fane eye  had  ever  seen  more  than  the  outside  of  these  sacred 
scrolls,  which  were  carried  about  in  procession  on  certain 
feasts,  but  the  contents  of  which  were  never  revealed  to  any 
one  beyond  the  priestly  pale.  Certain  scanty  hieratic  papyri, 
treating  of  medicine,  and  first  deciphered  in  our  days,  are 
the  only  fragments  of  this  literature  extant. 

When,  in  the  latter  days  of  Home,  Egypt  came  to  be 
looked  upon  as  the  mother  of  all  wisdom,  the  greatest  curi- 
osity began  to  be  manifested  anent  these  reputed  works,  the 
divine  mysteries  of  which  might,  it  was  thought,  renew  the 
strength  of  a  doomed  world.  But  fire  and  sword  had  done 
their  work  on  the  Nile.  Every  trace  of  that  redeeming 
literature  seemed  lost  for  ever,  when  all  of  a  sudden,  a  num- 
ber of  books  came  to  light,  nobody  knew  exactly  how,  bearing 
the  mighty  name  of  Hermes  Trismegistus.  They  treated, 
exactly  as  had  been  surmised,  of  the  Soul,  of  Grod,  of  Nature, 
of  Transmigration,  of  Immortality,  and  other  theological  and 
metaphysical  questions.  They  were  supposed  to  have  been 
in  Greek,  translated  from  the  original  Egyptian,  or,  as  was 
held  till  within  the  last  two  hundred  years,  from  the  Arabic. 
A  more  mysterious  production,  [and  [one  more  strangely 
reflecting  the  Proteus-like  and  ubiquitous  nature  of  the  God 
of  Dreams,  could  certainly  not  be  found.  These  fragments, 
such  as  they  are  now  before  us,  are  composed  of  the  most 


184  HERMES  TRISMEGISTUS. 

widely  divergent  elements  under  the  sun,  but  withal  cun- 
ningly woven  into  one  harmonious  whole.  Most  curious, 
however,  is  the  theology  broached  in  them,  which  is  Jewish, 
Christian,  and  Platonic,  or  rather  Alexandrian,  and  yet  a 
thing  of  itself.  Monotheism,  Polytheism,  Pantheism,  are  all 
equally  represented,  but  none  can  call  the  work  its  own.  In 
the  middle  of  the  Egyptian  Pantheon,  with  interlocutors 
such  as  Isis,  Horos,  and  Tat,  we  find  the  Logos,  side  by  side 
with  the  archaic  myths  of  the  Phoenician  Cosmogony.  The 
Gnostic  Demiurgos  is  plainly  foreshadowed,  and  the  argu- 
ments for  immortality  are  borrowed  from  the  early  mate- 
rialistic schools  of  Thales,  Anaximander,  and  Anaximenes* 
The  language,  corrupt  though  it  be,  at  times  rises  to  a  grand 
melodious  eloquence,  and  in  some  portions  it  becomes  quite 
patent  that  we  have  to  deal  with  an  originally  rhythmical 
composition.  The  Midrash  has  furnished  it  with  many  a 
favourite  simile,  and  with  many  of  its  most  gorgeous  poetical 
fancies.  Altogether,  these  fragmentary  writings  seem  a 
kind  of  ancient  most  catholic  microcosm,  to  which  all  creeds 
and  all  systems  have  contributed  their  share,  and  in  which 
arguments  may  be  found  for  and  against  every  metaphysical 
and  speculative  doctrine  of  East  or  West,  archaic  or  recent, 
that  ever  was  conceived. 

The  Church  Fathers  did  not  know  what  to  make  of  it  alL 
That  these  writings  emanated  from  a  heathen — god  or  man- 
was  clear  enough:  but  then  the  dogma  of  the  Trinity 
appeared  in  them,  and  they  call  God  "Divine  Majesty"  and 
"  Father."  Some,  like  Lactantius,  held  the  work  to  be  the 
echo  of  a  primeval  revelation  which  was  much  corrupted  in 
the  course  of  time.  Others,  like  Jamblichus,  felt  the  strong 
hand  upon  them,  and  unhesitatingly  acknowledged  the 
transcendental  nature  of  the  book.  "  Truly,"  he  says,  "  the 
way  that  leads  to  God,  Mercurius  has  taught  and  described." 
But  still,  how  this  wily  god  should  have  become  possessed  of 
the  true  knowledge  was  a  sore  puzzle — a  puzzle  that  has 
occupied  many  a  generation  since,  but  which  the  scholiasts,, 
after  their  usual  manner,  have  got  over  by  declaring  Hermes 
to  be  the  Devil  incarnate. 


HERMES  TRISMEGISTUS.  185 

It  would  be  interesting  indeed  to  know  who  really  wrote 
these  kaleidoscopic  books.  There  breathes  a  fervour  in  them 
that  reminds  us  of  the  strange  arid  strong  exotic  perfume 
which  may  cling  to  a  vase  during  all  the  centuries  of  its 
entombment.  A  deep  yearning  for  truth,  for  the  under* 
standing  of  the  great  mystery  of  the  Cosmos,  makes  itself 
felt  in  every  line.  The  method  is  at  times  that  of  an  adroit, 
brilliant,  quick  fencer,  who  espies  every  weak  point;  at 
times,  again,  it  proceeds  with  a  vague  dreaminess,  pointing 
to  the  stars  or  to  the  sea,  and  both  thought  and  voice  seem 
hushed.  There  are  sudden  outbursts  of  love  and  of  faith, 
profoundly  poetical  and  genuine.  And  through  the  whole 
there  runs  a  deep  bitter  sadness,  as  over  a  world  of  beauty 
and  joy  which  is  about  to  sink  back  into  chaos.  That  there 
is  also  to  be  found  in  these  vilely  mutilated  and  much 
"improved"  fragments,  longwindedness  and  clumsiness, 
feebleness  and  venom,  will  not  astonish  those  who  are  accus- 
tomed to  see  the  Censor  rampant  in  ancient  books  which, 
according  to  his  notion,  did  not  quite  agree  with  the  true  and 
orthodox  faith  of  his  own  time.  Perhaps,  also,  ancient 
palimpsest-manufacturers  produced  supplements  to  Mercury 
long  before  the  goldmakers  of  the  middle  ages  turned  their 
attention  to  the  production  of  Hermetic  literature.  But 
who  wrote  the  Nibelungen,  who  the  Yedas,  who  the  Book 
of  Job? 

'  Much  more  useful,  however,  for  the  understanding  of  the 
book  than  the  knowledge  of  its  author's  name,  real  or  ficti- 
tious, is  the  time  in  which  he  wrote.  And  of  that  time  we 
can  just  see  the  dim  outlines.  Of  all  the  strange  phases  in 
the  religious  history  of  mankind,  none  is  so  strange,  none  so- 
fraught  with  deep  philosophical  and  psychological  problems, 
as  that  which  followed  the  introduction  of  Christianity  into 
the  ancient  world.  Kome  had  then  well  nigh  completed  her 
conquests.  The  barriers  of  East  and  West  were  broken  down, 
and  from  the  remotest  corners  of  the  empire  philosophers, 
and  priests,  scholars  and  teachers,  flocked  to  Alexandria,  to 
Athens,  to  Rome,  the  chief  academies  and  the  emporiums  of 
thought.  Here  they  discussed  their  respective  creeds  and 


186  HEKMES  TKISMEGISTUS. 

systems,  and,  however  widely  differing  in  the  beginning,  in 
the  end  they  had  frequently  exchanged  and  amalgamated 
them,  utterly  unconscious  of  the  process.  Eclecticism  was 
altogether  the  chief  characteristic  of  that  period.  Alexandria 
had  scholasticized,  allegorized,  and  symbolized  so  long  that 
everything  was  at  last  explained  to  mean  its  very  reverse. 
Athens,  or  rather  the  educated  classes  of  Greece,  were  votaries 
of  a  Platonism  identical  with  scepticism.  As  for  Rome  her- 
self, that  acute  policy  of  hers  which  so  readily  admitted  the 
gods  of  Egypt  and  Persia  into  her  promiscuous  pantheon  had 
begun  to  bear  the  bitter  fruit  of  grovelling  superstition  and 
unbridled  licentiousness.  To  all  this  there  came  the  teach- 
ings of  Judaism,  which  through  its  adherents  had  spread 
over  a  great  part  of  the  ancient  world.  The  pure  ethics  of 
that  faith,  even  before  they  were  brought  out  more  pro- 
minently by  Christianity,  the  rigorous  austerity  with  which 
the  Jews  clung  to  their  strange  symbolic  tenets — nay,  the 
exclusive  spirit  of  Judaism  itself — had  something  awe-in- 
spiring to  the  antique  mind.  The  irresistible  manner  in 
which  Christianity  swept  from  the  Euphrates  to  the  Ganges, 
.and  from  the  Nile  to  the  Tiber,  taking  by  storm  a  whole 
world  agitated  to  its  lowest  depths,  and  yearning  for  some 
new  and  more  human  faith  than  any  it  had  known  before, 
need  not  be  dwelt  upon.  But  what  concerns  us  here  is  the 
fact  that  all  the  ancient  creeds  seemed  of  a  sudden  to  unite 
against  this  common  enemy.  Polytheism,  doomed  to  die, 
would  not  surrender  easily,  but  looked  for  allies  even  in  the 
camp  of  purest  Monotheism.  It  used  every  effort,  marshalled 
every  argument,  touched  every  string.  And  when  we  read 
Julian  the  Apostate's  bitter  and  tearful  elegy — for  this  seems 
the  only  word  for  his  celebrated  pamphlet — when  we  hear 
Libanius  imploring  the  "  ragged  "  priests  and  votaries  of  the 
new  faith  to  spare  at  least  some  of  the  temples,  to  leave  a 
few  gold  and  silver  treasures  in  the  sanctuaries,  and  not  to 
break  every  one  of  the  marble  statues ;  when  Symmachus  in 
the  name  of  the  senate  prays  that  the  one  altar  of  Victoria, 
by  whose  aid  they  had  conquered  the  world,  might  be  left 
to  the  city — we  cannot  but  feel  a  mournful  sympathy  with 


HERMES  TRISMEGISTUS.  187 

these  pleaders  for  the  last  remnants  of  the  "  springtime  of 
humanity."  In  the  foremost  ranks  of  the  advocates  of 
Polytheism  stood  some  of  the  very  best  men — philosophers, 
poets,  writers,  men  of  education,  refinement,  and  of  high 
social  standing.  They  had  but  one  word  for  Christianity- 
Atheism.  They  denounced  it  as  an  impious,  weird,  unprac- 
tical creed.  They  pointed  to  the  golden  splendour  of 
Hellenism,  to  the  arts  and  the  sciences,  the  prose  and  the 
poetry,  the  men  and  the  women  it  had  begotten.  They 
pointed  to  the  victories  which  their  ancient  gods,  who  were 
now  to  be  dethroned  and  degraded  for  the  sake  of  the  "  pale 
Galilean,"  had  won  for  them.  The  notions  of  the  Christian 
Hell  and  Purgatory,  of  Satan  and  his  angels  of  darkness,  of 
the  awful  fundamental  mysteries  of  the  new  faith,  were 
repugnant  to  them  beyond  expression.  The  ethics,  sublime 
and  simple,  human  yet  divine,  which  the  New  Testament 
teaches,  were,  they  said,  taken  from  Plato,  or  were  simply 
Jewish.  This  open  opposition,  however,  did  not  prevail. 
The  current  was  too  strong.  The  anti-Christian  champions 
then  bethought  themselves  of  stratagems.  Into  the  wild 
chaos  of  so-called  pseudopigraphical  writings — the  missionary 
tracts  of  the  early  centuries,  named,  in  order  to  carry  con- 
viction more  easily,  after  all  possible  biblical  personages — 
they  threw  their  own  gospel,  cunningly  adopting  the  enemy's 
own  language.  Thus  in  the  midst  of  the  thousand  prophecies, 
revelations,  epistles,  evangels  ascribed  to  everybody  from 
Adam  and  Ham  to  Nebuchadnezzar  and  the  three  men  in 
the  fiery  pit — and,  as  if  there  were  not  names  enough  in  the 
Bible,  fathered  upon  some  fancy  names,  such  as  Pachor, 
Barker,  Balsemum,  Abraxas,  Arrnagil — there  appears  Hermes 
Trismegistus.  On  a  would-be  ancient  Egyptian  "  platform," 
he  pleads  for  anything  and  everything — Pantheism,  Poly- 
theism, or  Judaism — against  Christianity,  but  under  so  skilful 
a  mask  that  pious  Church  Fathers  actually  used  him  in  their 
charges  to  the  faithful ;  and  thus,  unwittingly,  have  preserved 
some  precious  fragments  that  would  otherwise  have  been 
lost. 

The  principal  and  most  complete  of  these  Hermetic  books 


188  HERMES  TRISMEQISTUS. 

is  called  Poemander,  i.  e.  Shepherd  of  Men.  It  is  not  unlikely 
that  this  name  was  given  to  it  in  imitation  of  the  well-known 
Christian  "  Pastor  Hermas,"  very  popular  in  those  days.  It 
contains  a  cosmogony,  made  up  of  Greek  philosophy  and  a 
Hellenism  that  recalls  both  the  joyful  elasticity  of  Hellas 
and  the  severe  rationalism  of  Borne,  of  Jewish  allegories,  of 
Egyptian  legends,  and  even  of  Persian  demonology,  together 
with  Neoplatonic  Christianity.  The  first  Essence — the 
Intelligence — creates  another  creative  power,  the  Logos, 
which  again  produces  seven  ministers  for  the  seven  heavenly 
spheres.  Man's  soul  is  made  by  God,  but  his  body  is  pro- 
duced by  himself,  in  a  manner  that  reminds  one  of  the  story 
of  Narcissus.  One  of  the  theories  principally  insisted  upon 
with  regard  to  the  whole  Cosmos  is  its  imperishable  nature, 
"Nothing  is  lost,  and  it  is  only  by  mistake  that  changes  are 
called  death  and  destruction,"  is  the  theme  of  a  whole 
chapter.  There  is  also  a  u  Sermon  on  the  Mount,"  but  it  is 
only  the  title  that  recalls  that  other  "  Sermon."  Among  the 
other  fragmentary  writings,  such  as  the  addresses  from 
Hermes  to  Tat,  his  son,  to  Asclepios,  and  to  Ammon,  those 
of  the  "Sacred  Book"  are  the  most  characteristic  and 
important.  Particularly  fine  is  the  description  given  here 
of  the  creation  of  man  out  of  certain  unruly  souls,  and  of  the 
arguments  urged  against  it  by  the  Elements,  which  foresee 
the  new  being's  wild  and  godless  career.  The  whole  piece 
is  Haggadistic  in  its  shape  and  partly  in  its  contents,  but  it 
is  also  largely  indebted  to  Plato's  Tima3us. 

The  most  striking  portion  of  the  whole  work,  however, 
seems  to  us  to  be  that  grandly  weird  "  burden  "  pronounced 
upon  Egypt,  or  rather  the  whole  modern  world,  which  is 
contained  in  the  "Asclepios,"  or  discourse  of  Initiation.  It 
isasif"der  Menschheit  ganzer  Jammer"  had  been  in  the 
mind  of  the  man  who  wrote  it.  Having  spoken  of  the 
triumph  of  Christianity  and  the  consequent  return  of  the 
gods  from  earth  to  heaven,  he  continues : — 

"...  You  weep,  Asclepios !  I  have  still  more  mournful  messages. 
.  .  .  Egypt  herself  will  fall  into  apostasy.  .  .  .  And,  full  of  the  disgust 
of  all  things,  man  will  no  longer  admire  and  love .  this  world.  He  will 


HEKMES  TRISMEGISTUS.  189 

turn  away  dismayed  from  this  most  perfect  work,  the  best  work  of  this 
and  of  all  times.  In  the  general  weariness  and  vexation  of  souls,  this  vast 
universe  will  be  disdained.  This  immutable  work  of  God,  this  glorious 
and  perfect  construction,  this  manifold  assembly  of  pictures,  where  the 
Divine  Will,  prodigious  in  miracles,  has  brought  everything  together  into 
one  unique  harmony,  ever  worthy  of  veneration,  praise,  and  love.  .  .  . 
They  will  prefer  darkness  unto  light ;  they  will  hold  death  better  than 
life.  ...  No  one  will  look  up  to  the  heavens.  The  man  of  religion  will 
be  considered  a  fool,  the  impious  a  sage;  fury  will  go  for  bravery;  the 
worst  will  be  called  the  best.  The  soul,  and  all  the  questions  connected 
with  it — whether  it  be  born  mortal,  or  whether  it  may  aspire  to  im- 
mortality— everything  that  I  have  exposed  to  you  here,  they  will  only 
laugh  at;  they  will  see  sheer  vanity  only  in  it.  ...  The  Religion  of 
Intelligence  will  be  persecuted;  new  laws,  new  rights  will  be  established; 
not  a  word  or  thought  that  is  holy,  religious,  worthy  of  heaven  and 
heavenly  things,  will  be  tolerated.  .  .  .  Pitiful  separation  of  gods  and 
men !  Nothing  will  remain  but  Wicked  Angels ;  they  will  be  mixed  up 
with  miserable  humanity ;  their  hand  will  be  upon  it ;  they  will  push  it 
into  all  evil  undertakings — into  war,  rapine,  lies,  into  everything  contrary 
to  the  nature  of  the  souls.  .  .  .  The  earth  will  no  longer  keep  its  balance, 
the  sea  will  no  longer  be  navigable,  the  regular  course  of  the  stars  will  be 
troubled  in  heaven.  All  Divine  voices  will  be  silent,  the  fruits  of  the  land 
will  be  corrupted,  the  soil  will  no  longer  yield  fruit,  the  air  itself  will  be 
filled  with  dark  torpor.  Such  will  be  the  old  age  of  the  world,  irreligion 
and  disorder,  confusion  of  all  rules — of  all  that  is  good.  .  .  ." 

After  all  this  corruption  the  regeneration  of  the  world,  "  the 
holy  restoration  of  nature,"  will  be  wrought  by  the  "  Lord 
and  Father  "  in  a  marvellous  manner. 

It  is  strange  how  these  books  of  Hermes — to  which  in  the 
middle  ages  there  were  made  many  other  spurious  additions 
— have  been  neglected.  Even  Parthey's  edition — the  first 
critical  one  ever  attempted — is  not  quite  complete ;  and 
since  "  that  learned  divine  Doctor  Everard's  "  English  trans- 
lation of  the  "  Divine  Pymander  "  was  edited  by  "  J.  F."  in 
1650,  not  the  slightest  notice  seems  to  have  been  taken  of 
that  remarkable  work,  or  any  other  remnant  of  Hermes,  in 
England.  In  Germany  the  "Poemander"  has  been  trans- 
lated once  or  twice  within  the  last  hundred  years,  but  save 
Baumgarten-Crusius  (1827),  no  one  seems  to  have  paid  any 
particular  attention  to  it.  In  France,  Franfois  de  Foix 
translated  and  commented  on  it  in  1579,  and  dedicated  it  to 
Marguerite  of  Navarre.  Ever  since  it  has  slept  in  peace  till 


190  HERMES  TRISMEGISTUS. 

M.  Menard,  at  the  instigation  of  the  Academy,  took  it  up 
again  and  retranslated  both  the  Poemander  and  the  other 
fragments.  His  version  is,  considering  all  the  difficulties  he 
has  had  to  contend  with,  creditable  on  the  whole.  But  we 
cannot  bestow  even  that  modicum  of  praise  on  the  etude  with 
which  he  prefaces  it,  and  for  which  we  presume  the  Academy 
has  bestowed  the  prize  upon  him.  We  wonder  what  his 
competitors'  essays  must  have  been  like.  It  certainly  would 
require  a  being  as  learned,  as  acute,  as  prophetical  perhaps 
as  the  divine  Hermes  himself  to  unravel  all  the  different 
threads  which  Judaism,  Hellenism,  and  Egyptianism  have 
woven  into  this  gorgeous  fabric.  But  some  approach  to  a 
clearing-up  might  have  been  made,  not  by  vague  references 
to  MM.  de  Kouge  and  Yacherot,  nor  even  by  extracting 
them,  but  by  earnest  and  patient  working  at  the  bulk,  not 
only  of  early  and  late  Hellenistic,  but  also  of  Haggadistic 
and  hieroglyphical  sources.  M.  Menard  seems  to  be  as 
innocent  of  the  one  as  he  is  of  the  other,  but  he  quotes  the 
Bhagavat-Gita.  Interesting  and  elaborate  as  the  essay 
appears,  considered  as  a  contribution  to  general  French 
literature,  it  is  deplorably  shallow  and  windy  when  judged 
by  the  depth  and  vast  interest  of  the  matter  it  pretends  to 
treat  of.  None  but  those  who,  with  weariness  of  heart  and 
racking  brains,  have  tried  to  penetrate  through  the  learned 
deserts  which  surround  the  subject  can  fully  appreciate  the 
disappointment  caused  by  this  etude.  There  is  a  very  good 
reason  why  the  profoundest  German  scholars  have  avoided 
it.  Where  they  feared  to  tread,  M.  Menard  has  rushed  in, 
and  the  result  is  his  ponderous  feuilleton.  He  evidently  tries 
to  imitate  M.  Kenan.  But  M.  Eenan  would  have  written 
much  more  fascinatingly,  if  not  more  learnedly. 


IX. 
JUD^EO-AKABIC  METAPHYSICS.1 

Re-published  Tyy  permission. 


GIVEN  that  most  complex  and  fragmentary  body  of  literature, 
ranging  from  times  beyond  historic  ken  down  to  the  fulness 
of  Hellenic  culture,  which  we  call  collectively  the  Old  Tes- 
tament; given  further  those  mazes  of  legal  enactments, 
gorgeous  day-dreams,  masked  history,  ill-disguised  rational- 
ism, and  the  rest  which  form  the  Talmud  and  the  Midrash ; 
given  also  the  Kabbala,  and,  finally,  Plato  and  Aristotle  as 
developed  by  Jews  and  Mohammedans  either  on  the  basis  of 
their  fundamentally  identical  creed  or  independently — what 
was  the  attitude  of  the  Synagogue  towards  all  these  elements, 
as  far  as  they  treated  of  the  first  problems  of  all  religion  and 
all  philosophy?  What  was  the  process  whereby  the  widely 
diverging  statements  and  speculations  on  Creation,  the  Soul, 
the  Hereafter,  the  nature  of  the  Deity,  contained  in  those 
authorities,  were  sought  to  be  blended  and  harmonized  so  as 
to  satisfy  both  Jewish  faith  and  thought  ? — a  faith  fervent 
and  passionate  beyond  measure,  to  which  all  visions  and  all 
transcendentalism  and  allegories  were  so  many  historical  facts, 
for  all  of  which  death  was  sweet  and  holy — and  a  boldness  of 
thought  which,  with  all  reverence,  frankly  said,  as  Socrates 
had  said,  "  That  divinely  revealed  wisdom  of  which  you  speak 
I  deny  not,  inasmuch  as  I  do  not  know  it ;  I  can  only  under- 
stand human  reason."  The  everlasting  battle  between  reason 
and  blind  belief  in  "that  which  is  written"  was  fought  with 
very  grim  seriousness  in  the  early  period  of  the  middle  ages 


1  This  article  appeared  in  the 
'  Saturday  Review '  for  March  5, 
1870,  and  reviewed  the  following 


work  : — '  Studien  liber  jiidisch-arab- 
ische  Religions  -  Philosophic/  Von 
Dr.  A.  Schmiedl.  Wien :  1869. 


192  JUD^O-ARABIC  METAPHYSICS. 

within  the  bosom  of  the  Jewish  Church.  And  while  we 
survey  the  history  of  that  controversy  as  it  was  taken  up  and 
•continued  in  the  Christian  Church,  we  blush  to  find,  from 
the  very  days  of  Albertus  Magnus,  the  Doctor  Universalis, 
&nd  Thomas  Aquinas,  the  Doctor  Angelicus,  down  to  our  own 
perfect  nests  of  arguments  both  on  the  side  of  orthodoxy  and 
of  rationalism,  unconsciously  perhaps,  but  most  unmistakably 
stolen  from  the  mediaeval  successors  of  those  same  Eabbis  to 
whom  Jerome  owed  his  Vulgate  lore.  To  write  a  history  of 
Jewish  metaphysics  would  indeed  be  an  undertaking  worthy 
to  rank  with  the  highest,  most  difficult,  most  interesting 
and  instructive  tasks ;  especially  if  attempted  as  a  contri- 
bution to  the  history  of  human  rationalism.  The  religious 
development  from,  say  Hillel  the  "  freethinker,"  who  calmly 
compressed  all  the  Law  and  the  Prophets  into  the  familiar 
"  Be  good,  my  dear,"  to  Maimonides,  the  "  Great  Eagle," 
who  more  explicitly  and  scientifically  lays  down  the  supreme 
axiom  that  every  word  of  the  Bible  must  either  be  in  accor- 
dance with  rational  conclusions  or  be  explained  "  meta- 
phorically," and  who  totally  denies  an  "  individual  "  working 
of  Providence ;  and  on  to  Baruch  Spinoza,  in  whom  Goethe — 
how  much  of  this  nineteenth  century  besides  ? — lives  and 
moves  and  has  his  being — this  would  indeed  be  goodly  work 
for  a  whole  lifetime. 

Our  author  has  not  attempted  anything  so  ambitious. 
Very  far  from  it.  He  is  satisfied  with  gathering  a  few 
mosaics  from  the  discussions  on  these  metaphysical  topics  in 
the  JudaBO- Arabic  schools ;  and  we  are  duly  grateful.  In  the 
circumscribed  field  which  he  has  chosen  he  has  worked  con- 
scientiously, and  on  the  whole  very  successfully.  But  the 
curse  of  wishing  to  write  "popularly"  has  been  upon  him, 
and  consequently,  being  bereft  of  that  very  special  gift  of 
enthusiasm  which  is  akin  to  poetry,  and  which  at  times  is 
found  to  lend  a  strange  charm  even  to  the  most  abstruse 
subjects,  he  has  so  far  failed.  The  mere  discarding  of  learned 
notes  is  not  always  sufficient  to  make  a  book  either  striking 
or  pleasant.  Nor  has  Dr.  Schmiedl  always  been  happy  in 
the  methodical  arrangement  of  his  subjects :  whence  spring 


JUD^O-AKABIC  METAPHYSICS.  193 

repetitions  of  a  needless  arid  very  tedious  kind.  There  is  also 
a  looseness  of  style  and  language  which  a  little  care  would 
have  obviated.  Having  delivered  our  soul  of  these  slight 
objections,  we  shall  give  a  brief  glance  at  the  varied  contents 
of  the  volume  itself. 

The  first  disquisition  or  chapter — the  subject  of  which  is 
taken  up  again  in  the  second — treats  of  the  Deity  as  con- 
ceived by  Jewish  philosophy.  The  existence  of  God  is  of  course 
presupposed;  or  it  would  no  longer  be  Jewish  philosophy. 
But  what  about  his  attributes  ?  Has  He  any  ?  Scripture, 
literally  taken,  seems  to  affirm  this.  Yet,  taken  in  a  higher 
sense,  as  understood  by  the  Alexandrines,  the  Targum,  and 
the  Talmud,  it  denies  it.  Philosophy,  on  its  part,  found  a 
contradicto  in  adjecto  in  an  absolute  Being  or  Supreme  Cause 
the  sole  essence  of  which  is  its  Oneness  and  Uniqueness, 
being  considered,  either  subjectively  or  objectively,  as  present- 
ing qualities  or  accidences.  This  contest  between  the  "Attri- 
butists  "  and  "  Nonattributists  "  was  indeed  one  of  the  fiercest 
and  bitterest,  and  each  camp  boasted  of  brilliant  champions. 
But  the  latter  carried  the  day,  led  by  no  meaner  authorities 
than  Ibn  Ezra,  Jehuda  Halevi,  and  Maimonides.  The  last 
of  these  goes  the  length  of  calling  the  view  of  his  antago- 
nists anti- Jewish.  "  As  well  might  you  say  at  once  that  'He 
is  One  but  rather  Three,  besides  being  Three  but  rather  One.' 
If  you  give  attributes  to  a  thing,  you  define  this  thing ;  and 
defining  a  thing  means  to  bring  it  under  some  head,  to  com- 
pare it  with  something  like  it.  God  is  sole  of  His  kind. 
Determine  Him,  circumscribe  Him,  and  you  bring  him  down 
to  the  modes  and  categories  of  created  things."  The  Talmud 
in  its  characteristic  way  relates  the  story  of  a  precentor  who 
heaped  divine  epithet  upon  epithet,  and  whom  a  master  asked 
when  he  had  finished — "And  have  you  now  quite  exhausted 
God's  good  qualities?"  The  Psalms  speak  of  "silence"  as 
the  best  mode  of  praising  God.  Nor  is  the  endeavour  which 
goes  through  all  postexilian  literature,  of  finding  a  kind  of 
medium  between  the  Inconceivable  and  the  world  of  matter, 
foreign  to  this  notion.  "Word,"  or  "  Holy  Ghost,"  or  "  She- 
chinah,"  are  the  forms  under  which  Judaism  at  that  early 

o 


194  JUD/EO-ARABIC  METAPHYSICS. 

period  tried  in  its  speech  and  thought  to  approach  that  which 
itself,  shrouded  in  the  ineffable  mystery  of  the  Tetragram- 
inaton,  was  beyond  human  thought  or  approach.  Indeed,  we 
should  say  that  the  whole  Angelology,  so  strikingly  simple 
before  the  exile,  and  so  wonderfully  complex  after  it,  owes 
its  quick  development  on  Babylonian  soil  to  the  same  awe- 
stricken  desire  which  grows  with  growing  culture,  removing 
that  inconceivable  Ens  further  and  further  from  human  touch 
and  ken.  At  the  same  time  the  Talmud  protests  against 
anything  like  the  notion  of  angels  interceding  on  the  part  of 
man.  They  are  nought  but  messengers,  created  for  the  pur- 
pose of  their  message.  More  clearly  still  does  Maimonides 
call  every  natural  law,  every  being,  animated  or  other,  so 
that  it  fulfils  a  certain  behest,  an  "  Angel."  Thus,  he  says, 
a  prophet  is  an  angel ;  the  elements  are  angels  ;  the  stars  are 
angels ;  and  so  are  the  sea,  the  winds,  and  the  human  intel- 
lect. When  the  Talmud  speaks  of  God  as  having  consulted 
the  angels  ("  the  Circle  or  Family  above")  in  the  fashioning 
of  every  part  of  the  human  organism,  this,  he  says,  shows 
that  everything  in  creation  is  done  in  accordance  with  the 
manifold  laws  of  nature,  each  ruling  over  its  own  sphere,  and 
all  coming  more  or  less  into  play  in  the  complicated  human 
frame.  Again,  when  the  Talmud  reduces  the  number  of 
angels  whom  Jacob  saw  in  his  dream  at  Bethel  to  four,  two 
mounting  upwards  and  two  descending  downwards,  it  merely 
hints  at  the  wondrous  weaving  and  working  in  the  Cosmos 
by  the  four  fundamental  elements — fire  and  air  which  strive 
upwards,  and  water  and  earth  which  tend  downwards.  And, 
as  if  to  leave  no  doubt,  the  Talmud  had  further  called  think- 
ing man  superior  to  the  angels.  This  dictum,  however,  was 
fiercely  contested  in  the  medieval  schools.  Is  man  greater 
because  he  has  a  will  and  may  struggle  against  evil,  while 
the  angel  can  only  do  what  he  is  bidden?  or  because  man 
is  the  centre  of  creation,  even  as  the  earth,  according  to  the 
astronomy  of  the  period,  rests  in  the  middle  of  the  universe  ? 
And  some  schools  unhesitatingly  doubted  and  denied  the 
very  truth  of  this  opinion  enunciated  by  the  Talmud.  Is 
man  greater  than  other  creatures  ?  And  is  he  the  aim  and 


JUD^O-ARABIC  METAPHYSICS.  195 

of  the  creation,  or  merely  the  most  perfect  organism  on 
earth  ?  Saadia  holds  the  former,  Ibn  Ezra  and  Maimonides 
hold  the  latter,  view.  Scripture,  argues  the  first,  calls  angels 
"  divine  beings,"  and  the  stars  (which  the  "  angels  "  are  sup- 
posed to  be  moving)  "  sons  of  God."  But  remember,  Ibn  Ezra 
says,  how  infinitely  larger  certain  stars  are  than  the  whole 
earth,  and  do  you  think  that  the  inconceivably  vast  host  of 
the  heavens  can  be  meant  for,  and  inferior  to,  the  small 
dust-born  human  being?  Still  more  sharply  does  Maimo- 
nides ridicule  the  very  notion  of  "  stars  or  angels  "  being 
made  for  the  sake  'of  man,  who  by  the  side  of  these  "  intelli- 
gences "  sinks  into  utter  insignificance.  The  practical  conse- 
quence of  this  discussion  was  that  the  "  honourable  mention," 
not  to  say  "  invocation,"  of  angels — which  had  been  stamped 
out  by  the  Talmud,  and  which  had  grown  up  again  by  stealth 
under  foreign  influences — now  received  its  death  blow.  Even 
the  minor  masters  call  it  rank  idolatry.  And  the  Kabbalists, 
to  whom  Angelology  is  almost  the  first  condition  of  religious 
existence,  are  forced  to  plead  that  all  those  endless  varieties 
of  their  holy  names  are  but  so  many  anagrams  of  divine  and 
biblical  epithets,  and  that  it  is  God  and  not  "  Patrons  "  whom 
they  invoke.  To  stretch  the  point  to  the  utmost,  it  was 
distinctly  denied  that  when  Joshua  prostrated  himself  before 
the  angel,  he  intended  to  show  the  angel  any  reverence.  He 
bowed  down  before  Him  who  had  deemed  him  worthy  of  a 
message — even  as  a  man  shows  honour  even  to  a  dead  piece 
of  paper  which  comes  from  some  one  he  reveres. 

Among  the  many  topics  further  touched  upon  in  the  book 
before  us,  such  as  prophecy,  metempsychosis — the  notion  of 
which,  we  may  passingly  observe,  Saadia  calls  "sheer  insanity  " 
— the  resurrection,  allegorism,  &c.,  we  would  fain  have  dwelt 
somewhat  more  fully  upon  the  Anthropomorphisms  and 
Anthropopathisms  in  the  Bible  with  which  Judaism,  pro- 
perly so  called,  had  from  the  beginning  dealt  unsparingly. 
From  the  Targum,  which  scrupulously  effaces  every  term 
which  might  lead  to  the  thought  of  a  corporeal  existence  of 
God,  to  the  Midrash,  whose  most  daring  protest  against  the 
human  similes  used  even  by  the  prophets  Maimonides 

o  2 


196  JUD^O-AKABIC  METAPHYSICS. 

approvingly  quotes ;  from  the  broad  axiom  of  the  Mishnah, 
that  these  things  are  not  to  be  taken  literally — "  the  Thorah 
speaking  merely  in  a  human  way  " — to  the  days  when  Yedaya 
Penini  could  say  that  at  last  this  Anthropomorphistic 
absurdity  had  been  finally  driven  even  from  the  obscurest 
brains — we  find  one  endless  series  of  attempts  to  get  rid  of 
all  materialistic  interpretation  of  undoubtedly  materialistic 
terminology.  Kough,  indeed,  is  the  manner  in  which 
Maimonides  disposes  of  the  u  Voice "  on  Sinai,  or  God's 
"  descending  thereon  " — which  the  Talmud  already  declares 
to  be  but  a  figure  of  speech — and  nothing  can  be  more 
characteristic  than  the  almost  contemptuously  good-natured 
manner  in  which  he  finally  allows  the  hopelessly  unthinking 
to  do  as  they  please  about  these  things.  "  If  some  of  the 
shortsighted  will  not  rise  to  the  step  to  which  we  endeavour 
to  lift  them,  let  them  by  all  means  imagine  all  such  terms 
(Angels,  &c.)  to  refer  to  something  material — no  great  harm 
will  come  of  it."  It  was  indeed  only  the  devotees  of  Kabbala 
and  Karaism  who  still  protested  against  these  rationalizing 
Talmudistic  views,  and  their  end  has  been  either  petrifaction 
and  death,  or,  worse  still,  coarse  imposture  and  religious 
delirium. 

We  here  take  leave  of  our  author  grateful  for  his  sugges- 
tive and  learned  u  Studies,"  and  hoping  soon  to  meet  him 
again  on  the  same  field.  But  let  him  not  be  afraid  of 
bringing  with  him  his  whole  apparatus  next  time,  however 
bulky  it  may  be. 


(    197    ) 


X. 


LES  APOTRES.' 


"  WITHOUT  haste,  without  rest,"  M.  Eenan  proceeds  with  his 
idyl  of  the  Origins  of  Christianity.  Two  years  and  a  half 
have  now  elapsed  since  the  publication  of  his  '  Life  of  Jesus' ; 
an  interval  during  which  he  hopes  "some  of  his  readers  will 
have  learnt  to  look  somewhat  more  calmly  upon  these  pro- 
blems." In  accordance  with  the  programme  sketched  out  in 
that  volume,  the  present  instalment  treats  of  the  Apostles. 
But  the  author  has  thought  fit  to  alter  the  original  plan  in  so 
far  that  not  the  period  from  the  death  of  Jesus  to  the  end  of 
the  first  century,  but  only  the  history  of  the  twelve  years 
33 — 45  is  contained  in  the  present  book.  St.  Paul's  con- 
version, not  his  labour,  is  spoken  of  here ;  he  is  to  form  the 
central  figure  of  the  next  book,  which  will  commence  with 
his  first  mission. 

We  confess  at  once  that  a  more  seductive,  but  also  more 
trying  task  than  that  of  pronouncing  upon  this  book  has 
rarely  fallen  to  our  share.  While  we  read  it  and  read  it 
again,  it  carries  us  away,  swiftly,  irresistibly.  There  is  in  it 
a  pathos  Avhich  stirs  the  mind  to  its  inmost  depths.  The 
power  of  its  diction  is  wondrous  sweet  and  strong.  Picture 
follows  picture,  musical  cadence  follows  cadence,  epigram- 
matic casuistry  suddenly  changes  into  broken  accents  of  love, 
—the  vast  glory  of  the  antique  fades  before  a  dark  group  of 
sainted  women.  Jerusalem  the  Golden  rapidly  nearing  her 
supreme  hour, — Antioch  and  all  her  marble  gods, — the 


1  This  article  appeared  in  the 
« Athenaeum '  of  May  12,  1866,  and 
reviewed  the  following  work  : — '  Les 


Apotres.'    Par  Ernest  Renan.    Paris, 
Levy ;  London,  Nutt. 
Be-priuted  by  permission. 


198  LES  APOTRES. 

waving  lily-fields  of  Galilee  and  the  million- voiced  life  of  the 
Urbs  et  Orbis, — Paul,  the  proud,  learned,  passionate,  refined 
convert,  and  the  lowly  band  of  peasant-disciple?,  whose  only 
wisdom  was  to  love  their  Master  "jusqu 'a  la  folie," — psycho- 
logical and  physiological  problems,  and  chiefly  the  working 
of  those  mystic  powers  that  move  between  light  and  darkness,, 
between  life  and  death : — all  these,  and  a  thousand  other 
themes,  are  touched  upon  in  rapid  succession  with  cunning 
hand ;  and  through  the  whole  there  breathes  a  fervour  strange 
and  strong  as  some  heavy  exotic  perfume, — an  ardent  adora- 
tion of  something  indefinite,  dreamy,  ideal,  which  takes  our 
hearts  and  our  senses  captive,  hushes  the  loud  protest  and 
lulls  our  doubts  into  repose.  We  yield  to  the  spell,  and 
"shut  out  thinking." 

But  when  we  wake  from  this  trance  and  try  to  grasp  the 
argument,  to  realize  the  story,  its  divine  heroes  and  heroines, 
we  seem  to  be  trying  to  realize  what  we  have  heard  and  seen 
in  dreams.  The  landscape  erst  so  sunny  lies  veiled  in  a  mist, 
the  living  men  and  women  have  become  like  unto  shadows,, 
and  when  they  speak  their  voice  is  thin.  A  thousand  incon- 
gruities and  impossibilities  become  apparent  at  once.  In  this 
book,  perhaps  even  more  than  in  the  former,  the  gaps  of 
history  are  filled  out  by  visions.  Fact,  or  at  least  tradition, 
is  blended  with  fancies.  And  it  is  far  from  easy  to  separate 
again  what  the  hand  of  an  artificer  like  M.  Kenan  has  welded 
together,  principally  when,  as  is  not  rarely  the  case,  he  pur- 
posely seems  to  have  avoided  fathoming  the  real  state  of 
things  to  the  full,  lest  it  might  interfere  with  the  more 
picturesque  or  poetical  conception. 

When  compared  with  the  former  volume,  the  present  one 
seems  to  be  somewhat  inferior  in  verve.  Not  that  M. 
Kenan's  style  is  less  brilliant,  his  skill  of  grouping — posing, 
we  might  say — less  consummate,  or  his  diction  less  like  a 
blending  of  Victor  Hugo  and  Lamennais.  But  there  is  some- 
thing pointedly  conciliatory  in  his  tone.  His  views  about 
miracles  and  the  "  supernatural "  are  certainly  unchanged — 
perhaps,  if  possible,  more  advanced  still ;  but  he  states  them 
rather  differently.  He  argues,  he  reasons,  where  before  ho 


LES  APOTRES.  199 

pronounced.  He  is  exquisitely  courteous,  and  always  on  his 
guard  not  to  offend  by  the  form  of  his  utterance.  But  from 
this  there  springs  at  times  a  great  uncertainty  as  to  his 
meaning.  When,  after  having  utterly  disproved  a  thing,  he 
continues  to  speak  of  it  as  an  existing  reality,  he  reminds  us 
slightly  of  a  modern  poet  invoking  Apollo  and  the  Muses ; 
only  that  a  universal  agreement  about  Apollo  and  the  Muses 
being  a  glorious  dream  of  the  past  may  be  taken  for  granted, 
while  dogmas  and  miracles  are  to  many  people  still  some- 
thing very  real  indeed.  Science  should  never  be  vague ;  it 
should  leave  us  no  doubts  as  to  the  writer's  own  meaning ;  on 
all  occasions  it  should  use  nothing  but  explicit,  clear  and 
decisive  terms  after  the  verdict  has  once  gone  forth.  His 
eagerness  not  to  vex  leads  M.  Eenan  almost  into  flirting  with 
orthodoxy  pur  sang,  and,  more  characteristic  still,  with 
Imperialism — Cesarisme,  as  he  has  it.  He  professes  great 
admiration  for  the  centralizing  system  of  Kome,  which  not 
only  gave  her,  in  his  opinion,  the  power  over  East  and  West 
but  which  also  gave  to  the  still  and  pensive  minds,  the 
votaries  of  science  and  art,  the  ease  and  the  leisure  for  their 
solitary  musings.  No  wonder  if,  as  we  hear,  liberal  France 
should  have  taken  great  offence  at  this  new  line  of  the  late 
Professor  of  the  Hebrew  chair. 

Another  point,  and  one  of  the  most  vital,  is  the  flagrant 
want  of  acquaintance  displayed  in  this  volume  with  certain 
sources  which,  in  the  Introduction  to  the  first,  were  spoken 
of  so  hopefully  and  confidently.  We  mean  those  terrible 
mounds  of"Chaldee"  literature,  to  which  of  late  our  atten- 
tion has  been  drawn  more  and  more  : — The  Targums,  the 
Talmuds,  the  Midrashim,  even  the  Zohar,  and  the  rest  of  late 
Kabbalistic  lore.  Hie  Ehodus,  hie  salta.  They,  and  nothing 
but  they,  we  believe,  can  give  us  a  real  notion  of  the  mental 
atmosphere,  of  the  dogmas  and  doctrines,  the  ethics  and 
ceremonies,  the  sagas  and  parables,  the  prose  and  the  poetry, 
of  the  time  when  Christianity  was  born.  It  was  far  from  suf- 
ficient to  adduce,  as  the  author  has  done  in  the  first  volume, 
some  scanty  fragments  of  legendary  lore  out  of  old  collec- 
tions, and  try  to  verify  them  with  foreign  aid.  Little  is  to  be 


200  LES  APOTKES. 

gained,  after  all,  by  tracing  a  few  parallel  instances  of  pro- 
verbial sentences.  What  was  wanted  now,  and  what  we 
looked  forward  to  in  this  book,  was  the  proof  of  the  existence, 
within  the  Jewish  community,  of  such  notions  as  the  Logos, 
the  Trinity,  the  working  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  suffering  and 
redeeming  Messiah.  Further,  what  ideas  terms  like  Son  of 
God,  Son  of  Man,  Gift  of  Tongues,  and  the  like,  originally 
conveyed  to  the  popular  mind  ;  what  were  the  notions  of  the 
Schools  about  Kedemption,  Eegeneration,  Kepentance,  Confes- 
sion of  Sin,  Baptism,  Absolution,  and  a  thousand  other  things 
current  among  the  contemporary  Jewish  world,  but  utterly 
bewildering  to  the  Gentiles,  and,  let  us  confess  it,  still  far 
from  clear  to  our  own  generation,  after  well-nigh  two 
thousand  years'  working.  The  style,  the  idiom,  the  in- 
numerable open  and  latent  allusions,  the  form  and  substance, 
in  fact,  of  the  fundamental  Books  of  Christianity  contained 
in  the  New  Testament,  written,  as  Lightfoot  has  it,  by  Jews, 
among  Jews,  for  Jews,  ("  a  Judseis,  atque  inter  et  ad  Judseos  ") 
can  only  be  properly  appreciated  and  thoroughly  understood 
by  constant  reference  to  the  oral  literature  of  the  period. 

We  did  not  expect  M.  Kenan  to  succeed  where  no  one  has 
succeeded  before  him.  He  is  far  from  being  able  to  grapple 
with  a  task  like  this.  But  he  should  at  least  have  en- 
deavoured to  illustrate,  from  the  materials  already  at  hand, 
some  of  the  most  prominent  and  obvious  points.  Second-, 
nay,  tenth-rate  sources  would  have  taught  him  to  avoid 
flagrant  errors  like  that  of  the  "  Eegeneration "  being  an 
idea  of  which  no  one  had  ever  heard  before ;  while  nothing 
can  be  more  common  than  the  adage  that  "  a  proselyte's  mind 
becomes  like  that  of  a  new-born  child.  "  The  Midrash  even 
explains  the  passage  in  Genesis  (xii.  5),  "  the  souls  they  had 
made  (gotten)  in  Haran,"  to  refer  to  new  converts,  who  were 
to  be  considered  as  newly  born  from  the  moment  when  they 
embraced  the  faith.  He  would  have  known  that  the  voice 
from  Sinai  was  said  to  have  divided  itself  into  seven,  or 
seventy,  fiery  tongues — according  to  the  supposed  number  of 
nations  on  earth — "just  as  the  hammer  strikes  many  sparks 
from  the  iron  upon  the  anvil ;"  and  he  should  have  used  this 


LES  APOTEES.  201 

most  popular  notion  in  his  explanation  of  the  gift  of  tongues. 
He  would,  if  he  had  really  looked  into  these  matters,  have 
avoided  that  most  fatal  note  (p.  262),  "  It  is  well  known  that 
no  manuscript  of  the  Talmud  remains  by  which  the  printed 
editions  could  be  checked," — while  scores  and  scores  of 
codices,  for  the  most  part  fragmentary,  but  fully  available 
for  a  critical  edition  (such  as  is  now  in  hand),  are  scattered 
all  over  the  public  libraries  of  Europe,  in  Italy,  in  France,  in 
England,  in  Germany,  in  .Russia,  in  Holland.  The  imperial 
Library  in  Paris  alone  contains  eight — oddly  registered — 
MSS.,  with  almost  unexamined  fragments;  and,  no  doubt, 
the  Mazarin  Library  counts  some  valuable  portions  among  its 
treasures, — only  that  its  Catalogue  must  for  Talmudical  works 
be  consulted  under  "Haaretici,"  under  which  heading,  as 
Lebrecht  says,  "  Eabbi  Gamaliel  and  Calvin,  Eabbi  Akiba 
and  Luther,  slumber  peacefully  together."  It  is  this  same 
vagueness  of  information  about  the  Talmud  which  recently 
caused  a  writer  in  one  of  our  Quarterlies  to  make  an  extra- 
ordinary computation  about  the  probable  size  of  this  book. 
Judging  from  a  special  edition  of  the  Mishnah,  in  six  folios, 
he  reckoned,  if  we  remember  rightly,  that  the  Talmud  must 
needs  fill  ninety — unconscious,  apparently,  of  the  fact  that  it 
has  been  printed  times  innumerable  (there  are  five  different 
editions  in  the  press  at  this  moment),  and  that  it  is  almost 
invariably  printed  in  twelve  volumes.  This  state  of  things 
reminds  us  very  forcibly  of  our  old  friend  the  "  Kabbinus 
Talmud,"  and  we  think  it  high  time  that  it  should  cease. 

But  to  return.  We  know  full  well  that  a  knowledge 
requisite  for  such  a  history  of  the  '•'  Origins,"  in  fact,  for  such 
a  Commentary  on  the  New  Testament,  as  we  have  it,  ideally, 
in  our  mind's  eye, — a  knowledge  which  should  not  only  know 
at  what  particular  spot  in  these  mounds  it  should  excavate, 
but,  having  excavated,  would  understand  how  to  sift  and  use 
these  materials  properly,  with  a  profoundly  pious  and  reve- 
rential mind, — a  knowledge  not  narrow,  sectarian,  one-sided, 
but  catholic,  human,  large,  one  to  which  Homer  and  Horace 
and  Goethe  and  Tennyson  should  not  be  more  foreign  than 
Church  Fathers,  and  archaeologists,  palaeographers  and  anti- 


202  LES  APOTRES. 

quaries,— -a  knowledge,  above  all,  which,  in  awaking  the  long- 
buried  past,  should  always  remain  mindful  of  the  living  pre- 
sent, its  aspirations  and  its  wants: — such  a  knowledge,  we 
know,  is  not  easily  found  or  easily  gotten.  But  an  approach 
to  the  ideal  might  be  striven  after,  and  the  task  which  we 
have  indicated  is  one  as  high  and  noble  as  it  is  pressing. 

It  will  not  be  necessary  for  us  to  enter  into  the  general 
question  of  Benan's  book,  "  theologically  considered."     Thi& 
we  must  leave  to   the   special   theologians  of  the  different 
schools.     We  shall  only  endeavour  to  give  an  idea  of  it  as  a 
work  of  science,  as  which  he  has  sent  it  forth.     His  own 
standpoint  is  so  well  known  that  it  would  be  utter  waste  of 
breath  to  reason  upon  it  at  this  time  of  the  day.     As  we  said 
before,  the   present  volume  treats  only  of  the  first  twelve 
years  of  the  new  creed.     It  is  as  well  that  these  twelve  years 
should  occupy  a  special  place ;  for  it  is  that  period  which  has 
decided  the  existence  of  a  church  that,  starting  without  a 
name  and  without  almost  any  distinguishing  feature,  save 
the  belief  in  its  founder, — a  church  which  for  a  time  was  con- 
sidered, and  considered  itself,  neither  more  nor  less  than  a 
small  band  of  most  orthodox  and  rigorous  Jews,  keeping  the 
ceremonies  more  strictly  than  the  "  Pharisees"  themselves, — 
has  conquered  and  regenerated  the  world.     During  this  period 
it  was  that  dogmas  the  most  vital,  like  the  Eesurrection,  the 
influence  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  the  rest,  became  Christian 
dogmas.     The  organization  of  the  Church  of  Jerusalem,  its 
first  trials  and  triumphs,  how  it  spread  to  Antioch,  and  there 
first  became  conscious  of  being  a  thing  distinct  from  Judaism,, 
there  also  adopted  for  ever  the  name  given  to  it  by  strangers 
in  ignorance  or  derision, — how,  above  all,  that  most  startling 
and,   to  the   young  community,   most  repulsive   notion   of 
opening  the  gates  to  the  heathen  sprang  into  being, — what 
were  the  nature  and  circumstances  of  these  Gentiles,  intellec- 
tually, politically,  morally,  socially,  and  theologically,  and 
how  their  admission  acted  upon  the  faith  of  the  community  : 
— these  are  indeed  topics  which  deserve  a  large  space  all 
their  own. 

St.  Paul,  as  we  have  mentioned,  is  not  included  in  this  book 


LES  APOTRES.  203 

called  "The  Apostles."  His  conversion  alone  is  recounted 
as  an  event  of  the  time,  and  its  importance  is  duly  dwelt 
upon.  But  he  is  not  an  apostle,  properly  speaking,  although 
he  assumes  that  name.  He  represents,  the  author  says,  the 
travelling  and  the  conquering  Church ;  but  he  himself  is, 
withal,  but  "  a  labourer  of  the  second  hour,  almost  an 
intruder."  And  here  M.  Kenan  takes  the  opportunity  of 
formally  protesting  against  what  he  calls  the  fashionable 
notion  of  our  day — of  looking  upon  Paul,  rather  than  upon 
Jesus,  as  the  founder  of  Christianity.  Not  only  is  he  not  to 
be  compared  to  Jesus,  but  not  even  to  the  last  of  his 
disciples.  The  only  reason  for  his  standing  out  so  pro- 
minently in  history  he  finds  in  the  greater  amount  of  written 
information  that  has  survived  regarding  him.  Important 
though  he  be,  yet  he  had  not  tasted  "  of  the  ambrosia  of  the 
Galilean  preaching,"  but  only  of  its  "  aftertaste."  In  fact, 
the  early  Church  looked  upon  him  with  great  suspicion — nay, 
as  upon  a  "  Simon  Magus."  The  Church  of  Corinth,  although 
founded  by  him  exclusively,  pretended  to  be  founded  jointly 
by  Peter  and  him,  in  order  to  be  able  to  boast  of  the  former's 
name  and  authority.  Papias  and  Justin  do  not  even  mention 
his  name.  The  only  difference  was  that  "  he  had  a  theology. 
Peter  and  Mary  Magdalen  had  not";  and  for  this  reason 
Christian  theology,  when  written  documents  took  the  place  of 
oral  tradition,  gave  him  a  higher  place  on  account  of  his 
extensive  writings. 

Apropos  of  Simon  Magus,  we  shall  be  glad  to  learn  in  the 
next  volume  what  M.  Kenan's  exact  notions  of  the  inde- 
pendent existence  of  this  mysterious  figure  are.  It  is  well 
known  that  Tubingen  (Baur-Volkmar)  looks  upon  him  as  a 
mere  fiction,  a  type  of  Paul,  invented  by  the  Anti-Gentile  or 
JudaBO-Christians,  and  as  whose  bitterest  adversary  Peter 
himself  appears  in  the  Clementines.  But  what  we  are  most 
eager  to  see  solved  in  the  next  volume  is  the  contradiction 
between  the  author's  emphatic  protest  against  this  "modern" 
notion  anent  this  Apostle — a  notion  as  old,  at  least,  as  Toland 
— at  the  beginning  of  the  book  and  his  own  forcible  argu- 
ments in  favour  of  this  same  notion  later  on ;  for  there  he 


201  LES  APOTKES. 

distinctly  and  repeatedly  argues  that,  without  Paul,  that  is, 
without  his  energetic  perseverance  in  admitting  the  Gentiles, 
and  disregardiug  the  "  Law," — two  things  in  which  he  holds 
him  not  only  to  have  differed  from  the  other  disciples,  but 
to  have  directly  deviated  from  the  intentions  of  Jesus  him- 
self— the  young  sect  would  have  disappeared  very  speedily, 
like  fifty  others  of  the  time,  without  leaving  a  trace  behind. 
He  speaks  of  the  other  Apostles  as  "  small,  narrow-minded 
(etroits),  ignorant,   inexperienced,   as   much   as  they  could 
possibly  be."    If  Paul,  he  says,  had  known  Jesus  alive,  it  is 
doubtful  whether  he  would  have  attached  himself  to  Him. 
"  His  doctrine  will  be  his  own,  not  that  of  Jesus ;  the  reve- 
lations of  which  he  is  so  proud  are  the  fruit  of  his  own  brain." 
"  The  Christ  whom  he  had  seen  on  the  way  to  Damascus  was 
not  the  Christ  of  Galilee,  but  the  Christ  of  his  own  imagina- 
tion, of  his  own  individuality.     Nay,  he  avoids  contact  with 
the  disciples  for  a  long  time,  lest  he  might  be  imbued  with 
notions  and  doctrines  they,  who  had  "  tasted  of  the  ambrosia," 
had  heard  from  their  Master.  At  his  conversion,  sudden  as  it 
was,  "  he  had  nothing  new  to  learn. "     This  can  only  mean 
that  Christianity,  at  its  outset,  had  no  doctrines  or  dogmas 
different  from  Judaism,  "Pharisaical"  Judaism  to  wit,  save 
the  belief  that  the  Messiah  had  appeared  in  Jesus,  which 
Judaism  denied.     "  Pauline  "  Christianity,  therefore,  with  its 
abrogation  of  the  "  Law,"  must,  according  to  M.  Renan,  be 
considered   as   a  thing  totally  different  from  the  primitive 
Christianity  of  the  disciples  and  the  first  Church.     Thus,  the 
author  in  the  middle  of  the  book,  designates  Paul  virtually 
us  the  originator  of  that  Christianity  which  lives,  and  is  to  us 
of  much  higher  import  than  that  original  Christianity  which 
died,  and  which  was  practically  Judaism  in  all  but  one  point 
—a  point,  moreover,  by  no  means  so  vital,  so  fixed  as  is 
generally    assumed.     The    opinions    of    the    contemporary 
authorities  were  strangely  divided  on  the  Messiah  question. 
Yet  he  loudly  repudiates  this  notion  in  the  Introduction. 
Surely  he  does  not  protest  for  the  benefit  of  readers  who  go 
no  further  into  the  book  ?     Or  shall  we  assume  that  he  has 
not  fully  made  up  his  mind  on  the  subject  ? — This,  however, 


LES  APOTKES.  205 

is  but  one  of  the  many  instances  where  vagueness  of  concep- 
tion and  the  desire  to  hold  an  original  ground  of  his  own — 
while  his  arguments  all  go  in  favour  of  a  common  contem- 
porary notion — lead  him  into  dilemmas  or  make  him  obscure. 
Highly  characteristic  is  the  manner  in  which  he  makes 
use  of  the  opinions  of  investigators  on  the  sources  for  this 
book,  and  chiefly  on  the  Acts.     These  sources — considering 
that  he  virtually  excludes  all  but  those  extant  in  Greek — lie 
in  a  very  narrow  compass.     The  Acts  he,  too,  holds  to  be 
written  by  Luke :  he  dates  them  about  80,  and  from  Eome ; 
written   there   perhaps,  he   significantly  adds,  for   Flavius 
Claudius, — "a  powerful  personage,  whose   official  position 
required  consideration," — a  circumstance  which  to  him  would 
explain  many  things.     Noblesse  oblige.    We  have  not,  indeed, 
to  look  for  anything  like  what  we  should  call  historical  truth- 
fulness in  this  account ;  but  then  "  it  is  only  the  sceptic  who 
writes  history  ad  narrandum"     " Le  bon  Luc,"  he  thinks,  is 
a  very  different  being  from  his  master,  Paul.     The  latter  is 
uncompromising,  severe,  "personal,"  heedless   of  anything 
save  the  doctrine  he  holds  and  the  ideas  he  wants  to  dis- 
seminate— a  "  Protestant ;"  while  Luke  impresses  him  rather 
as  a  "  good  Catholic ; "  docile,  optimist,  calling  every  priest 
a  "  holy  priest,"  every  bishop  a  "  great  bishop  "  (how  very 
like  some  other  writers !) ;  ready  to  embrace  all  kinds  of 
fictions  rather  than  to  acknowledge  that  these  holy  priests 
and  these  great  bishops  quarrel  and  fight  among  themselves 
in  rather  an  unholy  fashion  sometimes.    But  Luke  is  strongly 
impressed  with  the  "  ecclesiastical  authority ; "  the  "  Church 
of  Eome"  seems  already  to  have  been  present  to  his  mind, 
and  weighed  upon  it.     He,  the  good  Luke,  could  enter  into 
the  political  and  hierarchical  spirit  by  which  this  Church, 
from  the  first   centuries,  was  distinguished.     He  therefore 
writes  history  as  an  apologist  of  the  Court  of  Home  would — 
"  a  toute  outrance."     He  writes  as  an  Ultramontane  historian 
of  the  time  of  Clement  the  Fourteenth  would  have  written, 
praising  both  the  Pope  and  the  Jesuits,  or  as  that  same  per- 
sonage will  200  years  hence  show  that  Antonelli  and  Merode 
loved  each  other  like  brethren. 


206  LES  APOTRES. 

With  the  exception  of  the  "  hierarchy,"  which  seems  to  us 
to  savour  strangely  of  M.  Kenan's  early  training,  the  kernel 
of  all  this,  viz.,  that  the  "  Acts  "  is  a  work  cunningly  written 
so  as  to  suit  both  the  Gentile  and  the  Judseo-Christians,  is 
precisely  what  Schneckenberger,  Schwegler,  Baur,  Zeller, 
nay,  Michaelis,  Paulus,  and  even  De  Wette,  to  some  extent, 
have  long  urged.  But  no  one  has  contrived  to  exculpate  the 
author  as  M.  Kenan  does.  Craftiness  and  subtlety  are  the 
terms  those  rude  German  rationalists  apply  to  a  writer  who, 
in  their  opinion,  hacked  and  garbled  and  suppressed  and 
added  in  majorem  fidei  gloriam.  A  more  terrific  blow  has 
•certainly  never  been  aimed  at  the  "  systeme  d'histoire  eccle'- 
siastique  convenu  "  of  which  such  writing  as  he  represents  it 
would  be  a  specimen,  than  M.  Kenan's  defence. 

But  M.  Kenan  does  not  go  the  whole  length  of  Tubingen. 
He  does  not  think  that  the  book  is,  for  those  reasons  of 
intrinsic  falsehood  and  systematic  misrepresentations,  to  be 
rejected  en  bloc,  even  in  its  first  chapters,  which  are  most 
open  to  objections.  He  does  not  think  that  certain  per- 
sonages (the  Eunuch,  Tabitha,  &c.)  are  entirely  invented ; 
but  some  popular  tales  concerning  them  he  assumes  to  have 
been  used  skilfully  to  prove  the  two  doctrines  of  the  writer, 
viz.,  the  legitimate  call  of  the  Gentiles  and  the  Divine 
Institution  of  the  Hierarchy. 

We  shall  not  pursue  this  point  any  further:  firstly, 
because  we  are  repeatedly  referred  to  the  next  volume,  in 
which  the  writer  is  going  to  speak  fully  on  the  authenticity 
of  these  writings,  and  to  the  new  edition  of  the  first  volume, 
in  which  the  author's  opinions  on  the  Fourth  Gospel  are  to 
be  further  elucidated  and  defended ;  and,  secondly,  because 
there  is,  as  far  as  we  can  see,  nothing  new  in  all  that 
M.  Kenan  brings  forward  on  these  things,  save  the  peculiar 
colouring  which  he  gives  to  the  eclectic  results  of  older 
investigations.  We  may,  therefore,  safely  defer  what  we 
have  to  say  on  the  subject  until  he  brings  forward  his  own 
original  results.  But  before  we  pursue  the  course  of  the 
story  itself,  we  must  hear  him  speak  once  more  on  miracles, 
in  reply  to  the  objections  urged  against  his  arguments  in  the 
first  volume. 


LES  APOTRES.  207 

The  science  of  criticism,  lie  says,  can  know  nothing  of 
miracles.  They  are  impossibilities ;  and  this  is  not  a  meta- 
physical theory,  but  simply  a  fact  of  observation,  of  expe- 
rience. No  miracle  has  ever  been  proved;  but  every 
miracle,  when  closely  examined,  has  turned  out  to  be  either 
an  imposture  or  a  delusion.  Catholicism,  which  still  believes 
in  the  power  of  working  miracles,  has  never  produced  one, 
except  in  out-of-the-way  places.  Let  there  be  a  miracle 
wrought  in  Paris,  under  the  eyes  of  competent  men  of  science, 
and  there  will  be  an  end  of  all  doubt.  They  have,  without 
a  single  exception,  never  been  wrought  before  those  who 
were  capable  of  discussing  and  investigating  them  properly. 
It  is  not,  as  some  argue,  for  those  who  doubt  them  to  dis- 
prove their  reality,  but  for  those  who  believe  to  prove  them. 
If  Buffon  had  been  asked  to  give  a  place  in  his  "  Natural 
History"  to  centaurs  and  sirens,  he  would  naturally  have 
asked  to  be  shown  some  specimens  first.  "But  you  must 
prove  to  us  that  they  do  not  exist."  "  Nay,"  he  would  have 
replied,  "you  must  prove  that  they  do."  Why,  M.  Kenan 
asks,  does  no  one  really  believe  in  angels  or  demons,  although 
texts  innumerable  speak  of  them  ?  Because,  simply,  the 
existence  of  an  angel  or  demon  has  never  been  proved.  The 
argument  from  the  great  phenomena  of  the  universe  is  a 
simple  fallacy.  You  cannot  argue  that  because  the  nature 
of  the  sun  is  not  yet  sufficiently  known  to  astronomers,  there- 
fore it  is  a  miracle,  and  therefore  all  reported  miracles  are 
true.  The  creation  is  a  grand  marvel,  but  everything  moves 
in  it  according  to  everlasting  laws.  God  is  in  all  things 
always,  and  to  assume  that  sudden  interferences  are  neces- 
sary would  be  derogatory  to  His  work  and  to  Himself;  as  if 
the  universe,  like  a  watch,  wanted  occasional  mending. 
And  miracles  reported  in  historical  times  are  not  to  be  proved 
by  a  reference  to  pre-historic  times.  Nor  is  the  "moral" 
miracle  of  any  greater  weight.  True,  the  success  of  Chris- 
tianity is  one  of  the  greatest  facts  in  the  religious  history  of 
the  world;  but  it  is  not  therefore  a  miracle.  Buddhism, 
Babism,  and  Islamism  use  exactly  the  same  arguments  as 
Christianity.  They  had  their  miracles,  their  martyrs,  their 


208  LES  APOTRES. 

sudden  and  marvellous  successes.  And  granting  Christianity 
to  be  a  unique  fact, — what  of  Hellenism  ?  Is  not  this  the 
ideal  perfection  in  Literature,  Art,  Philosophy  ?  Does  not 
Greek  Art  surpass  all  other  arts  as  much  as  Christianity 
does  all  other  religions  ?  If  Christianity  is  a  prodigy  of 
sanctity,  Hellenism  is  a  prodigy  of  beauty.  A  unique  thing, 
however,  is  not  a  miraculous  thing.  God  is,  in  different 
degrees,  in  everything  beautiful,  good  and  true.  But  in  no 
instance  is  his  divine  presence  in  any  religious  or  philosophical 
movement,  a  special  privilege  or  an  exception.  "  And  if  our 
Church  rejects  us,"  he  continues,  "  let  us  not  recriminate  ; 
thanks  to  our  modern  days,  this  kind  of  hatred  is  impotent. 
Let  us  take  comfort  in  thinking  of  that  invisible  Church 
which  embraces  the  excommunicated  saints,  the  best  souls  of 
every  time.  Those  whom  one  church  has  banished  are 
always  its  elect;  they  are  in  advance  of  their  time.  The 
heretic  of  to-day  is  the  orthodox  of  the  future.  And  what, 
besides,  is  the  excommunication  of  man  ?  The  Heavenly 
Father  excommunicates  only  the  dry  spirits  and  the  narrow 
hearts.  If  the  priest  refuses  to  admit  us  into  his  cemetery, 
let  us  forbid  our  families  to  protest.  God  judges.  The 
earth  is  a  good  mother,  that  makes  no  distinctions;  the 
body  of  a  good  man  laid  in  the  unconsecrated  corner  brings 
its  own  blessing  with  it." 

It  is  one  man's  duty,  he  says,  to  speak,  another's  to  be 
silent,  although  they  may  both  think  and  feel  alike.  <;  The 
good  Bishop  Colenso  has  committed  such  an  act  of  honesty 
as  the  Church  has  not  seen  since  its  origin,  when  he  wrote 
down  his  doubts  the  moment  they  came  into  his  mind.  But 
the  humble  Catholic  priest,  in  a  country  of  a  narrow  and 
timid  spirit,  must  be  silent.  Many  and  many  a  discreet 
tomb  around  village  churches  thus  covers  "les  poetiques 
reserves  d'angeliques  silences."  Will  the  merit  of  those 
whose  duty  it  was  to  speak  be  equal  to  that  of  those  secrets 
which  God  alone  knows  ? 

At  this  point  the  author  enters  into  what  we  cannot  help 
describing  as  one  of  the  most  perfect  personal  explanations 
or  orationes  pro  domo  which  we  have  ever  seen.  Jarring  as 


LES  ArOTRES.  209 

many  of  its  notes  must  be, — chiefly  where  he  speaks  of  the 
future  Church, — it  will  yet  enlist  a  great  deal  of  sympathy. 

He  replies  to  the  many  personal  attacks  made  upon  him 
with  a  calmness  and  moderation  which  are  truly  admirable. 
The  truth,  lie  says,  will  not  be  furthered  by  "  so  much 
agitation."  The  timid  ought  not  to  read  what  disturbs  their 
faith.  "  Practical  people,"  again,  he  says,  have  asked  him 
what  has  been  his  real  object  in  writing  this  book  ?  "  Eh, 
mon  Dieu !  le  meme  qu'on  se  propose  en  ecrivant  toute 
histoire."  To  write  a  history,  to  investigate  and  to  make 
known  the  grand  events  of  the  past  as  accurately  as  possible, 
and  in  a  manner  befitting  them.  "Had  I  to  dispose  of 
several  lives,  I  should  spend  one  in  writing  a  history  of 
Alexander ;  another,  in  writing  a  history  of  Athens ;  a  third, 
in  writing  a  history  of  the  French  Eevolution,  or  of  the  order 
of  Francis  of  Assisi.  As  to  shaking  anybody's  faith,  that 
thought  has  been  a  thousand  miles  away  from  me." 

He  most  emphatically  denies  having  had  the  slightest 
desire  to  combat  established  creeds.  His  is  not  the  part  of 
a  controversialist,  but  another  more  obscure — more  fruitful 
for  science.  So  far  from  desiring  to  establish  anything  new, 
he  exhorts  his  readers  to  remain  in  their  respective  churches, 
and  to  derive  what  good  they  can  from  them.  He  sees  the 
times  of  Avignon  and  the  counter-Popes  coming  back  once 
more.  The  Catholic  Church,  he  thinks,  is  about  to  pass 
through  a  new  sixteenth  century ;  but,  notwithstanding  its 
schisms  and  divisions,  it  will  remain  the  Catholic  Church :  and 
in  a  hundred  years,  the  proportion  of  Protestants,  Catholics 
and  Jews  will  be  about  the  same,  he  holds,  as  it  is  now,  only 
that  there  will  be  more  in  each  community  who  will  believe 
in  the  spirit  rather  than  in  the  letter.  The  "  pure  Church  " 
does  not  want  to  raise  its  standard  against  the  old  ones,  for 
this  would  not  accelerate,  but  retard,  the  general  softening 
of  dogmatism.  Luther  and  Calvin  created  Loyola  and  Philip 
the  Second.  And,  above  all,  Christianity  must  not  be 
weakened,  for  what  should  we  be  without  it  ? 

When  M.  Eenan  speaks  of  Christianity  he  means  some- 
thing different  from  what  is  usually  understood  by  this  term. 

p 


210  LES  APOTRES. 

Not  the  complex  of  dogmas  and  ethics,  which  we  know  by 
that  name,  but  brotherly  love  and  charity,  and  the  pure 
adoration  of  the  Supreme  power,  without  any  dogmatic 
admixture,  seems  to  be  the  ideal  upon  which  he  bestows  this 
name,  or  that  other  of  the  "Pure  Church  of  the  Future.'* 
He  concludes : — "  Peace,  then,  '  au  nom  de  Dieu ! '  Let  the 
different  orders  of  humanity  live  side  by  side,  not  in  falsifying 
their  own  genius  in  order  to  make  mutual  concessions  to 
each  other,  but  in  mutually  supporting  each  other.  Nothing 
should  rule  here  below  to  the  exclusion  of  its  contrary ;  no 
power  should  be  able  to  suppress  the  others.  The  harmony 
of  humanity  results  from  the  free  emission  of  the  most  dis- 
cordant notes.  Let  orthodoxy  succeed  in  killing  science,  we 
know  what  will  then  happen;  the  Mohammedan  world  and 
Spain  are  dying  because  they  too  conscientiously  fulfilled 
that  task.  Let  rationalism  try  to  rule  the  world  without 
regard  for  the  religious  wants  of  the  soul,  the  experience  of 
the  French  Kevolution  is  there  to  teach  us  the  consequences 
of  such  a  mistake.  The  instinct  of  Art,  carried  to  the 
highest  delicacies,  but  without  honesty,  made  the  Italy  of 
the  Renaissance  a  cut-throat  place.  '  L'ennui,  la  sottise,  la 
mediocrite,'  are  the  punishment  of  certain  Protestant  coun- 
tries, where,  under  the  pretext  of  good  sense  and  Christian 
spirit,  Art  has  been  suppressed,  and  Science  reduced  to 
something  ugly.  Lucretius  and  St.  Theresa,  Aristophanes 
and  Socrates,  Voltaire  and  Francis  of  Assisi,  Eaphael  and 
Vincent  de  Paul,  have  equally  reason  to  be,  and  humanity 
would  be  less  if  a  single  one  of  its  component  elements  were 
wanting." 

Here  we  shall,  for  the  present,  leave  this  book,  which,  pre- 
eminent neither  for  deep  erudition  nor  original  research,  for 
scientific  precision  nor  logical  consistency,  with  visionary 
fancies  instead  of  facts,  and  a  thousand  and  one  faults  of 
conception  and  detail,  yet  cannot  but  be  considered  one  of 
the  most  remarkable  and  characteristic  contributions  to  the 
question  of  all  tune. 


(    211     ) 


XL 

FIVE  LETTERS  ON  THE  (ECUMENICAL 
COUNCIL.1 

TUESDAY,  SEPT.  14,  1869. 

THE  curtain  is  about  to  rise  upon  that  great  Council  of 
Home  which  has  long  been  casting  its  shadows  before. 
Sixth  of  the  Lateran  or  first  of  the  Vatican,  it  can  only  be 
called  (Ecumenical  at  this  time  of  the  day  by  a  stretch  of 
courtesy.  Inasmuch  as  all  "  cardinals,  patriarchs,  primates, 
archbishops,  bishops,  abbots  with  quasi-episcopal  jurisdiction, 
generals  of  orders,  together  with  certain  erudite  men  and 
princely  persons,"  are  convoked,  it  is  distinct  from  all  other 
kinds  of  Synods,  national,  provincial,  and  otherwise.  But 
Church  historians  do  not  agree  as  to  the  total  number  of 
(Ecumenical  Councils  hitherto  held.  The  well-known  mne- 
monic hexameter,  "  Ni  Co  E,  Chal  Co  Co,  Ni  Co  La,  La  La 
La,  Ly  Ly  Yi,  Flo  Tri,1'  standing  for  Nica3a,  Constantinople, 
Ephesus,  &c.,  which  counts  but  seventeen,  is  not  accepted 
by  all.  When,  for  example,  the  (Ecumenical  Council  of 
Ephesus,  in  449,  had  decided,  not  without  the  aid  of  "swords 
and  sticks  and  many  monks'  heels,"  that  Eutyches'  opinion 
about  the  nature  of  Christ  was  the  orthodox  one,  another 
(Ecumenical  Council,  held  eleven  years  later  at  Chalcedon, 
decided  that  the  decision  of  its  predecessor  was  null  and 
void,  and  that  so  far  from  being  an  (Ecumenical  Council, 
it  was  a  Council  of  Brigands — " Latrocinium  Ephesinum" 


1  From  the  « Times '  of  Sept.  14th  and  21st,  Oct.  5th  and  19th,  and  Nov. 
12th,  1869.    He-printed  by  permission. 

p  2 


212  FIVE  LETTERS  ON 

Even  so  the  Council  of  Basle  was  called  "  Basiliscorum 
spelunca  dsemonumque  caterva"  because  it  rebelled  against 
the  Pope,  its  master.  It  will,  therefore  only  deserve  the 
(Ecumenical  when  all  will  have  gone  well,  and  the  Synod 
that  comes  after  shall  have  approved  its  doings. 

Meanwhile  there  is  much  and  loud  knocking  heard  behind 
the  stage.  The  works  of  St.  Peter,  we  learn,  have  nearly 
reached  their  completion.  Signor  Sarti's  plans  having  been 
rejected,  the  device  of  Vespignani  has  been  adopted  instead. 
The  Papal  throne  stands  at  the  end  of  the  transept,  the  altar 
of  the  Council  in  the  centre,  the  stalls  for  the  fathers  being 
grouped  around,  no  longer,  alas !  in  eleven,  but  owing  pro- 
bably to  urgent  affairs  in  their  respective  dioceses,  in  seven 
rows.  The  whole  space,  instead  of  being  closed  by  an  apse 
at  the  Confession,  will  be  shut  in  by  a  curtain,  which  can  be 
drawn  aside  so  that  the  assembled  multitudes  may,  as  time 
serves,  behold  the  grand  scene.  The  stenographers  chosen 
from  the  different  nations,  so  that  they  may  not  stumble 
over  any  foreign — say  British — Latin,  are  rapidly  mastering 
their  craft  under  one  of  the  most  experienced  teachers.  The 
seven  commissions,  each  presided  over  by  a  Cardinal,  are 
pushing  on  their  work  spite  of  heat,  malaria,  or  due  vaca- 
tions. The  Pope  receives  a  daily  report  of  their  progress. 
A  special  commission,  composed  of  high  dignitaries,  are 
appointed  quartermasters,  and  Kome  has  to  find  lodgings  for 
her  guests  at  their  bidding.  Nay,  the  inaugural  sermon  is 
already  weighing  on  the  mind  of  Padre  Luigi  da  Trento, 
the  Archbishop  of  Iconium,  the  Apostolic  Preacher  of  the 
Vatican. 

Nor  is  literature,  in  the  widest  sense  of  the  word,  idle 
on  the  subject.  Articles  and  notices  and  essays  and 
pamphlets,  Liberal  and  Ultramontane,  rabid  and  sensible, 
Catholic,  Protestant,  nationalistic,  and  so  forth,  glut  the 
papers  and  the  book  market  in  honour  of  the  coming 
question  of  the  hour.  But  mighty  little  is  to  be  said  of 
these  efforts,  and  he  who  would  attribute  to  them  a  higher 
value  than  that  of,  in  the  main,  a  catchpenny  literature, 
be  mistaken. 


THE  (ECUMENICAL  COUNCIL.  213 

When  was  it  that  the  last  (Ecumenical  Council  closed  ? 
It  was  the  Council  of  Trent,  convoked  in  the  throes  of  the 
German  Keformation:  it  sat  and  rose  and  sat  again  from 
the  13th  of  December,  1545,  to  the  4th  of  December,  1563, 
and  its  decrees  were  confirmed  by  the  Pope  early  in  the 
following  year.  But  at  the  beginning  of  it  a  sermon  was 
preached  in  which  it  was  likened  to  the  Last  Council, 
wherein  Christ  and  the  Apostles  would  sit  in  judgment  over 
the  living  and  the  dead.  And  the  learned  and  pious  have 
ever  since  considered  this  a  prophetical  sermon,  inasmuch  as 
between  Trent  and  that  supreme  Synod  there  were  to  be  no 
more  Councils.  They  were  wrong,  but  so  was  the  whole 
world.  No  one  would  have  dreamt  of  a  like  revival  coming 
to  pass  before  our  eyes.  Nay,  there  were  those  who  doubted 
long  after  the  preparations  had  commenced.  Perhaps  our 
readers  have  forgotten  the  circumstances  under  which  this 
Council  was  ushered  into  the  world.  It  may  be  well  to 
recapitulate. 

On  the  8th  of  December,  1864,  the  tenth  anniversary  of 
the  "  dogmatic  definition  of  the  Immaculate  Conception 
of  the  Virgin  Mother  of  God,"  there  appeared,  together  with 
an  encyclical  letter,  the  famous  Syllabus,  treating  in  ten 
chapters  and  eighty  paragraphs  of  the  principal  errors  of  our 
time.  On  the  6th  of  June,  1867,  seventeen  questions, 
chiefly  on  Church  discipline  (with  regard  to  heretics,  civil 
marriages,  &c.),  were  addressed  in  a  circular  letter  to  all 
the  bishops.  On  the  26th  of  that  same  month  the  Pope 
pronounced  an  allocution  in  the  Secret  Consistory,  in  the 
presence  of  five  hundred  bishops,  wherein  he  made  known  to 
them  his  long-cherished  desire  to  summon  a  General  Council, 
by  the  means  of  which  the  Catholic  Church  would  celebrate 
its  highest  triumph,  convert  her  enemies,  and  carry  the 
Kingdom  of  Christ  all  over  the  world.  The  bishops  replied 
in  an  address  that  their  hearts  were  filled  with  joy  at  this 
prospect  of  a  General  Council,  which  could  not  but  become 
a  source  of  unity,  sanctity,  and  peace.  The  Pope  received 
the  address  joyfully,  and,  in  accordance  with  their  wishes, 
placed  the  Council  under  the  special  patronage  of  her  who 


214  FIVE  LETTEES  ON 

had  bruised  the  serpent's  head,  and  promised  that  wherever 
it  was  held  it  should  be  inaugurated  on  the  anniversary 
of  the  proclamation  of  the  Immaculate  Conception.  On 
the  29th  of  June,  1868,  the  Bull  of  the  Indiction  of  the 
Council  was  duly  promulgated.  This  was  followed,  on 
the  8th  of  September  of  the  same  year,  by  an  Apostolic 
Letter  addressed  to  all  the  Bishops  of  the  Oriental  rite  not 
in  communication  with  Home,  inviting  them  to  be  present 
at  the  Synod  "  even  as  their  ancestors  had  been  present  at 
the  second  Council  of  Lyons  and  that  of  Florence,"  where 
they  were  not  allowed  to  vote  and  had  to  sit  apart.  Abbate 
Testa  was  delegated  to  deliver  these  missives  personally  to 
the  schismatic  bishops  or  patriarchs.  Finally,  on  the  13th 
of  September,  that  Apostolic  Letter  to  all  Protestants  and 
other  non-Catholics  was  indited,  which  exhorts  them  to 
"  embrace  the  opportunity  of  this  Council "  (occasionem 
amplectantur  hujus  concilii). 

We  remarked  at  the  time  that  the  effect  upon  the  schis- 
matic mind  of  the  East  was  scarcely  to  be  called  en- 
couraging. The  Greek  Patriarch  would  not  look  at  the 
letter,  though  it  was  handsomely  bound  in  red  morocco,  and 
emblazoned  with  gold  letters  bearing  his  own  name.  He 
had  read  all  about  it  in  the  newspapers,  and  did  not  see  how 
the  Council  could  do  aught  but  lead  to  further  strife.  The 
peace  once  arrived  at  by  the  two  Churches  had  long  fallen 
to  the  ground.  His  mind  was  perfectly  easy  on  the  subject. 
And  so  the  gorgeous  volume  was  taken  from  the  divan  and 
handed  back  to  the  delegate,  who  was  bowed  out  and  de- 
parted in  peace.  The  Metropolitan  of  Chalcedon  returned 
the  Encyclical,  with  the  simple  but  graphic  "  Epistrephete," 
which  might  be  freely  rendered  "  Avaunt."  The  Bishop  of 
Varna  did  not  see  how  he  could  accept  what  his  master  had 
refused,  and  so  he  sent  back  the  Encyclical.  The  Bishop  of 
Salonica  had  no  less  than  five  reasons  for  his  declining,  to 
wit — J.  What  would  his  Patriarch  say  ?  2.  Why  at  Kome, 
why  not  in  the  East  ?  3.  Because  the  Pope  wants  to  get  us 
into  his  grasp ;  4.  The  Pope  wears  a  sword,  which  is  against 
Scripture ;  let  him  put  it  down  and  disband  his  army ;  5. 


THE  (ECUMENICAL  COUNCIL.  215 

Let  him  give  up  the  "  Filioque  "  and  there  will  be  no  more 
disunion  between  Greeks  and  Latins — which  last  proposition, 
all  things  considered,  is  very  delicious.  Yet  there  were  some 
exceptions,  which  the  official  Koman  Press  calls  "  consoling." 
One  schismatic  bishop  returned  the  letter,  yet  with  the 
promise  that  he  would  think  about  it  for  himself;  and 
another,  the  venerable  Bishop  of  Trebizond,  well  stricken  in 
years,  seems  to  have  been  quite  overcome,  and  received  the 
Encyclical  with  the  most  profound  tokens  of  reverence  and 
admiration,  pressed  it  to  his  forehead,  then  to  his  bosom, 
looked  at  it  from  all  sides,  for,  alas!  he  knew  not  the 
mystery  of  Latin  characters,  and  exclaimed  from  time  to 
time,  "  Oh,  Kome !  oh,  Kome !  oh,  Holy  Peter !  oh,  Holy 
Peter!"  But,  adds  the  official  account  quaintly  enough,  it 
was  utterly  impossible  to  get  anything  else  out  of  him — 
notably,  whether  he  meant  to  come  to  the  Council  or  not. 

The  effect  in  Europe  we  have  witnessed.  That  Catholic 
Power  which  indeed  is  of  the  most  vital  importance  in  the 
matter — France — has  declared,  through  M.  Baroche,  the 
Minister  of  Justice  and  Worship,  before  the  Legislative 
Assembly,  in  July,  1868,  that  the  Government  would  place 
no  obstacles  in  the  way  of  the  meeting.  It  did  not  know 
about  sending  representatives.  It  did  not  care  for  the 
omission  of  a  personal  invitation  to  the  Emperor.  Church 
and  State  should  not  be  separated ;  but  it  repudiated  the 
Syllabus,  and  prohibited  its  promulgation  from  the  pulpit. 
It  would  not  admit  the  infallibility  of  the  Pope.  It  would 
take  its  stand  upon  the  Concordat  and  the  Organic  Articles 
— that  arsenal  of  anti-Papal  weapons  which  forbids  the  publi- 
cation even  of  any  Papal  emanation  without  the  previous 
authorization  of  the  Government.  In  the  interval  Austria — 
the  Austria  of  the  Hapsburgs  still — has  torn  her  Concordat 
to  pieces  and  has  punished  priests.  Spain,  that  other  darling 
daughter  of  Eome,  has  proclaimed,  in  the  first  hour  almost 
of  its  regeneration,  liberty  of  conscience.  In  Bavaria,  the 
Government  has  asked  the  Universities  whether  the  Syllabus 
was  likely  to  interfere  with  the  rights  and  prerogatives  of 
the  State.  The  Theological  Faculty  of  Munich  has  answered 


216  FIVE  LETTERS  ON 

within  the  last  few  days.  Wiirzburg  takes  further  time. 
Phrase  it  as  cautiously  as  they  will,  the  Professors  cannot 
help  declaring  that  the  Syllabus,  whether  accepted  "nude  ef 
pure"  or  " mater ialiter"  negatively  or  positively,  in  the 
redaction  of  Pater  Schroder — who  has  already  undertaken 
the  labour  of  transforming  the  negative  Syllabus  into  a  kind 
of  dogmatic  Magna  Charta — or  not,  it  must  eventually 
occasion  some  not  unimportant  changes  in  the  relation 
between  Church  and  State.  And  that  State  and  Govern- 
ment of  Bavaria  know  enough  now,  and  they  have  done  the 
civil  thing  too. 

And  amid  all  these  signs  and  tokens  the  8th  of  December 
approaches  rapidly.  We  may,  perhaps,  give  the  probable 
programme  of  the  beginning  of  the  performance,  as  we  may 
gather  it  from  previous  similar  occasions,  notably  Trent. 
First  of  all,  all  Christendom  will  solemnly  be  called  upon  for 
its  prayers  on  behalf  of  the  Synod.  Next,  one  or  several 
days'  fast  will  be  proclaimed.  On  the  day  fixed,  the  8th  of 
December,  the  Assembly  will  walk  in  solemn  procession  to 
St.  Peter's,  where,  on  this  occasion,  the  Papal  throne  will  be 
erected  at  the  end  of  the  transept,  and  the  altar  of  the 
Council  in  the  centre,  the  stalls  for  the  Fathers  being 
grouped  around  it.  The  Pope  or  his  Legate  will  then  cele- 
brate High  Mass,  and  in  the  prayers  the  Holy  Ghost  will 
be  specially  invoked.  To  all  present  a  full  remission  of 
their  sins  will  next  be  announced,  and  blessings  will  be  in- 
voked both  on  the  Pope  and  the  Assembly,  the  Pope  chant- 
ing thrice,  "Ut  hanc  sanctam  Synodum  et  omnes  gradus 
ecclesiasticos  benedicere  et  regere  digneris."  After  this 
the  President — the  Pope  or  his  Legate — puts  the  question,. 
"  Does  it  please  you,  to  the  honour  and  glory  of  the  holy  and 
undivided  Trinity,  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost, 
to  the  increase  and  augmentation  of  the  faith  and  the  Chris- 
tian religion,  to  the  extermination  of  heresy,  the  peace  and 
unity  of  the  Church,  the  improvement  of  the  clergy  and  the 
Christian  people,  to  the  suppression  and  extinction  of  the 
enemies  of  the  Christian  name,  to  resolve  and  to  declare  that 
this  Council  do  commence  and  have  commenced  ? "  The 


THE  (ECUMENICAL  COUNCIL.  217 

Placet  having  been  given,  the  next  meeting  being  fixed,  the 
Ambrosian  hymn  of  praise  is  sung,  and  the  assembly  dis- 
perses. And  what  next  ? 

Profound  mystery  shrouds  the  proceedings.  And  yet, 
perhaps,  we  may  tell  our  readers  in  secret  what  we  have 
learnt  on  very  good  authority.  Three  things  will  be  done 
at  the  Council,  which  is  not  to  last  more  than  three  weeks 
altogether.  The  three  things  will  be  the  declaration  of 
the  infallibility  of  the  Pope,  which  is  to  be  proposed  at  the 
beginning  of  the  meetings  by  an  English  prelate ;  the  dog- 
matised Syllabus  will  be  made  law  ;  and,  further,  the  dogma 
of  the  Assumption  of  the  Virgin,  derived  from  two  apocry- 
phal writings  of  the  fifth  century,  will  be  proclaimed.  We 
hope  to  return  to  all  three. 

So  much  for  the  work  of  the  Session.  This  Council  will 
in  many  ways  be  different  from  its  predecessors.  From 
Niceea  to  Trent,  they  always  used  to  be  convened  in  order 
to  devise  means  against  some  special  enemy,  be  it  Arius  or 
Luther,  Henry  IV.  or  Frederick  II.,  the  Saracens  or  the- 
Templars.  Occasionally  the  Jews  also  were  taken  into  con- 
sideration, as  at  the  fourth  Lateran  Council  the  yellow  patch 
was  made  canonical.  Casually,  also,  as  at  the  fifth  Lateran 
Council,  the  fair  formerly  held  at  Lyons  was  transferred  to 
Geneva,  and  the  like  important  matters.  But  generally 
there  was  some  very  special  and  pressing  emergency,  some 
schism,  some  flagrant  error  or  scandal  to  be  met  in  solemn 
conclave  convoked  generally  by  both  the  secular  and  the 
spiritual  powers.  What  is  this  Council  convened  for  ?  The 
Encyclical  says : — 

"  It  is  well  known  by  how  horrible  a  tempest  the  Church  is  now  shaken. 

.  .  By  the  most  bitter  enemies  of  God  and  men  has  the  Catholic  Church 
and  its  salutary  doctrine,  and  venerable  power,  and  the  highest  authority 
of  this  Apostolic  see  been  assailed— trodden  under  foot ;  all  sacred  things 
have  been  despised,  ecclesiastical  goods  have  been  plundered,  the  bishops 
and  highest  ecclesiastical  dignitaries  and  Catholic  men  harassed  in  all 
manners,  religious  orders  extinguished,  and  all  kinds  of  impious  books  and 
pestilential  journals  .  .  .  have  been  spread  abroad.  ...  In  this  (Ecu- 
menical Council  shall  all  those  things  be  most  accurately  examined  ana 
determined  which  in  these  particularly  hard  times  have  particular  refer- 


218  FIVE  LETTERS  ON 

ence  to  the  greater  glory  of  God,  the  integrity  of  the  faith,  the  worthy 
celebration  of  Divine  worship,  and  the  everlasting  salvation  of  men, 
the  discipline  and  the  salutary  and  solid  instruction  of  the  clergy,  and  the 
observance  of  the  ecclesiastical  laws,  the  improvement  of  morals,  the  Chris- 
tian education  of  youth,  and  the  common  peace  and  concord  of  all.  And 
with  the  most  intense  eagerness  we  must  strive,  with  God's  good  help,  to 
remove  all  evils,  both  from  the  Church  and  civil  society." 

"Nec  credo  quod  Papa  possit  scire  totum  quod  potest 
facere  per  potentiam  suam,"  writes  the  Augustine  monk 
Augustino  Trionfo  of  Ancona,  in  his  "  Sum  of  the  Power  of 
the  Church  " — "  I  do  not  believe  that  the  Pope  could  know 
all  that  he  can  do  by  his  power."  He  shows  in  that  book 
that  the  Pope  has  not  merely  power  over  heaven  and  hell, 
but  also  over  purgatory,  and  by  his  indulgences  could  clear 
it  at  once,  only  he  thinks  that  he  had  better  not  do  it  if  he 
can  help  it.  Pius  IX.,  who,  somehow  or  other,  has  contrived 
to  lose  the  best  part  of  his  patrimony,  to  put  himself  in  the 
wrong  with  the  secular  powers,  with  all  Italy — that  same 
Italy  which  once  hailed  him  as  her  champion  and  liberator, 
and  which  now  with  the  last  remnant  of  pious  patience 
awaits  his  death  to  crown  herself  at  Rome — may  do  all  he 
says.  The  world  may  fall  at  his  feet  when  the  Syllabus  is 
proclaimed,  when  the  Blessed  Virgin's  assumption  is  made 
into  a  dogma,  and  when  he  is  infallible,  he  and  every  single 
Pope  that  ever  lived.  But,  perchance,  it  may  not.  If  not, 
he  may  imitate  the  example  of  Benedict  XIIL,  who,  for- 
saken by  all  Christianity,  retired  to  his  castle  of  Peniscola, 
there  to  pronounce  his  anathema  over  all  Christendom. 
And  when  the  Council  of  Constance  had  formally  deposed 
him  he  pointed  to  his  few  faithful  monks  and  said,  "  At 
Peniscola,  and  not  at  Constance,  dwells  the  Church  ;  even  as 
in  Noah's  Ark  there  was  whilom  assembled  all  humanity." 

And,  indeed,  though  at  Eome,  and  though  in  the  midst 
of  his  prelates,  about  whose  poor  part  in  the  whole  trans- 
action we  shall  yet  have  to  speak,  Pius  IX.  already  sits  in 
grim  solitude.  The  last  paragraph  of  the  Syllabus  declares 
it  a  damnable  error  to  suppose  that  the  Pope  "  can  or  ought 
to  reconcile  himself  and  come  to  an  understanding  (recon- 


THE  (ECUMENICAL  COUNCIL.  219 

ciliare  et  componere)  with  progress,  liberalism,  and  modern 
civilization."  Was  anything  ever  more  precise  ?  Never  has 
the  curse  pronounced  by  Innocent  III.  upon  our  Magna 
Charta  and  the  Barons  that  framed  it  been  abrogated,  but 
it  has  grown  and  spread  since,  and  two  worlds  rest  under  its 
shadow  in  peace.  That  "  disgrace  to  the  English  nation," 
that  "thing  of  no  account,"  which,  in  its  thousand  reflections 
and  images,  has  now  become  the  supreme  law  of  nearly  all 
civilised  nations,  shall  they,  shall  we  abrogate  it  at  the 
Council's  bidding  ?  Or  shall  not  the  winds  of  Heaven  carry 
back  to  Kome  its  own  weird  cry,  echoed  by  a  whole  world, 
Non  Possumusl 

SEPTEMBER  21,  1869. 

Roma  locuta  est.  But  what  a  difference  between  the 
answers  once  and  now !  "  The  only  line  of  conduct  on 
the  part  of  the  Government  with  regard  to  the  (Ecumenical 
Council  is  one  of  complete  inaction."  Thus,  telegraphically, 
Catholic  Belgium,  since  we  last  wrote.  And,  as  a  matter  of 
course,  "  no  delegate  will  be  sent "  by  that  Catholic  Power. 
By  way  of  complement  to  what  we  said  last  week,  the 
Constitutionnel  of  a  few  days  ago  gives  further  utterance  to 
the  official  mind  of  France.  It  is  all  for  the  best  of  the 
Council  that  the  Emperor  does  not  mean  to  send  a  repre- 
sentative. The  relations  between  Church  and  State  in 
France,  it  says,  are  very  well  settled  by  the  Concordat.  A 
delegate  would  tempt  the  assembled  Fathers  into  the  erro- 
neous belief  either  that  the  Government  wished  to  interfere 
in  the  discussion  of  dogmas  which  do  not  concern  it  in  the 
least,  or,  on  the  other  hand,  that  it  admitted  the  right  of 
the  Council  to  discuss  "  matters  belonging  exclusively  to  the 
secular  Government."  These  are  very  hard  words  to  bear 
all  the  harder,  as  they  are  universally  admitted  to  represent 
the  views  of  the  firstborn  son  of  the  Church  himself.  And 
the  answer  given  to  them  by  the  official  Eoman  press  is 
wofully  deficient  in  strength.  Governments  should  send 
their  delegates,  it  says,  in  order  that  these  may  tell  them 
"  what  the  Council  considers  to  be  the  duties  of  Govern- 


220  FIVE  LETTERS  ON 

ments  towards  their   subjects."     "But  they   will   have   to 
learn  that  lesson  yet,  sooner  or  later,"  it  adds  mysteriously. 

Nor  should,  among  the  latest  official  utterances,  that  of 
Switzerland  be  omitted.  These  sons  of  the  Alps  have  a 
diplomatic  way  of  their  own.  Count  Hohenlohe,  having 
proposed  that  they  should  join  in  preventive  measures- 
against  the  resolutions  of  the  Council,  they  reply,  somewhat 
curtly,  that  they  did  not  see  any  reason  for  doing  so ;  they 
had  nothing  to  do  with  any  deliberations  ;  but  if  the  resolu- 
tions of  the  Council  should  trench  upon  any  of  the  religious 
rights  of  their  citizens,  or  in  any  way  tend  to  a  breach  of 
the  peace,  then  the  clerical  dignitaries  were  very  well  ac- 
quainted with  the  Federal  Constitution  and  the  legal  means 
it  provides  against  any  such  illegal  attempts.  Alas !  Will 
no  one  interfere  ?  Shall  the  pathetically  expressed  "  expec- 
tations "  of  the  general  meeting  of  the  Catholic  Leagues  of 
Germany  "that  both  the  Governments  and  the  Princes  will 
refrain  from  taking  any  steps  which  might  disturb  the 
liberty  of  these  deliberations  on  the  part  of  the  Council,"  be 
so  literally  fulfilled  ?  Where  is  the  time  when  the  position 
of  worldly  dignitaries  at  these  Councils  was  matter  of  gravest 
import  ?  And  where,  too,  are  the  days  when  Emperors  said,, 
as  did  Constantine  the  Great  with  regard  to  the  Council  of 
Nicsea,  "  What  has  seemed  good  unto  three  hundred  holy 
Bishops  is  not  otherwise  to  be  considered  than  the  sentence 
of  God's  only  Son."  Time  was  when  the  question  whether 
these  Councils  were  divinely  or  humanly  set  was  very  hotly 
contested.  Before  the  Fathers  of  Trent  it  was  very  elo- 
quently proved  how  that  these  assemblies  were  the  distinct 
counterparts  of  certain  other  Councils  such  as  that  of  the 
angels  in  Job,  or  of  the  Trinity  itself ;  not  to  mention  those 
of  Sichem,  of  "Pope"  Eleazar,  and  Joshua,  of  Zadok  and 
Abiathar,  and  so  forth.  But,  by  way  of  compromise,  the 
middle  course  of  styling  them  "  apostolical "  came  to  be 
adopted,  because  the  Synod  of  Jerusalem,  in  52  A.D.,  when 
"  the  Apostles  and  the  Elders  came  together  for  to  consider  " 
a  certain  grave  matter  which  had  caused  "  no  small  dis- 
sension and  disputation  "  at  Antioch,  is  taken  to  be  the  first 


THE  (ECUMENICAL  COUNCIL.  221 

authoritative  Council  of  the  Church.  It  followed  that  the 
words  used  on  that  occasion,  "  for  it  seemed  good  to  the  Holy 
Ghost  and  to  us,"  were  with  some  variations  adopted  by 
those  Synods  that  came  after.  Thus  Cyprian  writes  to  Pope 
Cornelius, — "  It  has  pleased  unto  us  at  the  suggestion  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  (suggerente)."  The  Synod  of  Aries  says, — "  It 
has,  therefore,  pleased  unto  us,  in  the  presence  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  and  his  Angels."  No  wonder  that  Gregory  the  Great 
placed  the  authority  of  the  four  first  Councils  on  the  same 
level  with  the  four  Gospels. 

Another  question  seems  settled  now.  If  Church  historians 
are  not  agreed  on  the  point  with  whom  the  convocation  of 
General  Synods  lies — the  worldly  or  ecclesiastical  Powers — 
this  chilling  indifference  on  the  part  of  the  former  sets  that 
point  at  rest.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  however,  the  first  eight 
Councils  have  been  convoked  by  Emperors,  either  at  the 
supplication  of  the  Popes,  or  the  Popes  were  asked  to  send 
their  Legates.  It  is  equally  beyond  dispute  that  in  some  of 
these  Councils  the  Emperors  presided  "  77/309  evKocr^iav  "- 
41  for  the  sake  of  good  order  " — as  the  documents  of  the  fifth 
Council  have  it.  Alas !  neither  Napoleon,  nor  Francis 
Joseph,  nor  Victor  Emmanuel — not  even  Isabella  of  Spain, 
will  claim  precedence  of  seat  or  vote  this  time.  Which 
reminds  us  that  ecclesiastical  ladies  did  take  part  in  Synods, 
notably  in  England.  At  the  Synod  of  Whitby  in  664, 
where  such  questions  as  the  tonsure,  &c.,  were  discussed, 
Abbess  Hilda  took  her  proper  seat,  as  did  somewhat  later 
Abbess  ^Elfleda  at  the  Synod  held  on  the  Neith  river  in 
Northumberlan  d . 

"  Speech  is  silver,  silence  is  gold,"  says  the  Eastern 
proverb.  If  the  Powers  offend  by  their  reticence  and  dis- 
cretion, two  documents  which  have  appeared  in  print  since 
our  last  article  will  offend  more  by  their  utterance,  though 
even  they  contain  more  between  the  lines  than  within  them. 
We  mean,  in  the  first  instance,  the  answer  given  by  the 
theological  faculty  of  Munich,  the  substance  of  which  we 
gave  last  week.  Secondly,  the  pastoral  letter  issued  by  the 
Bishops  at  Fulda  assembled,  previous  to  their  departure 


222  FIYE  LETTERS  ON 

to  the  Council.  The  theologians  of  Munich  are  already 
declared  to  have  put  themselves  in  open  antagonism  to  the 
Church.  They  are  accused  of  attempting  to  bring  the 
worldly  arm  and  influence  of  the  State  to  bear  upon  the  de- 
liberations of  the  Church,  and  of  standing  out  in  appalling 
contrast  to  the  unanimous  declaration  of  the  Bishops  assem- 
bled in  Kome  in  1867.  These,  500  in  number,  had  entirely 
and  unconditionally,  and  with  "  one  mouth  and  one  heart," 
agreed  to  everything  the  Pope  had  said,  affirmative  or 
negative ;  they  adopted  what  he  adopted,  they  rejected  what 
he  rejected;  while  these  German  professors  dare  to  hint 
that  Pater  Schrader — he,  the  official  exegete  of  the  Syllabus 
— has  not  well  understood  certain  theses  of  this  document, 
because  its  promulgation  in  the  shape  which  he  gave  it 
would  be  fraught  with  grave  perils.  Still  worse,  perhaps,  is 
the  apparently  loyal  declaration  of  the  Bishops  of  Fulda, 
who,  assembled  at  the  tomb  of  St.  Boniface,  address  their 
dioceses  on  the  subject  of  the  Council.  "  They  do  not,"  they 
say,  "  think  that  this  Council  will  be  a  magic  cure  for  all 
ills  and  dangers,  and  that  it  will  change  at  once  the  face  of 
the  earth ;"  they  only  look  upon  it  as  a  means  of  further 
opening  up  "the  gates  of  Divine  truth  and  wisdom."  As 
regards,  however,  the  fears  that  even  among  faithful  mem- 
bers of  the  Council  have  found  expression,  they  wish  to 
remind  them  that— 

"  Never  and  never  shall  and  can  a  General  Council  establish  a  dogma 
not  contained  in  Scripture  or  in  the  Apostolical  Traditions.  .  .  .  Never 
and  never  shall  and  can  a  General  Council  proclaim  doctrines  in  contra- 
diction to  the  principles  of  justice,  to  the  right  of  the  State  and  its  autho- 
rities, to  culture  (Gesittung),  and  the  true  interests  of  science  (  Wissenschaft) 
or  to  the  legitimate  freedom  and  wellbeing  of  nations.  .  .  .  Neither  need 
any  one  fear  that  the  General  Council  will  thoughtlessly  and  hastily  frame 
resolutions  which  needlessly  would  put  it  in  antagonism  to  existing  circum- 
stances, and  to  the  wants  of  the  present  times ;  or  that  it  would,  in  the 
manner  of  enthusiasts,  endeavour  to  transplant  into  the  present  times 
views,  customs,  and  institutions  of  times  gone  by." 

In  reply,  finally,  to  the  insinuation  that  there  would  not 
be  the  fullest  liberty  of  debate,  they  say : — 

"  The  Bishops  of  the  Catholic  Church  will  never  and  never  forget  at  the 


THE  (ECUMENICAL  COUNCIL.  223 

General  Council,  on  this  most  important  occasion  of  their  office  and  call- 
ing, the  holiest  of  their  duties,  the  duty  of  bearing  testimony  to  truth ; 
they  will,  remembering  the  Apostolic  word,  that  he  who  desires  to  please 
men  is  not  the  servant  of  Christ,  remembering  the  account  which  they  will 
soon  have  to  give  before  the  throne  of  the  Divine  Judge,  know  no  other 
line  of  conduct  but  that  dictated  by  their  faith  and  their  conscience." 

There  is  a  very  peculiar  ring  in  these  words.  This  is  not 
the  voice  of  the  Civilta,  neither  of  that  Ultramontane  party 
in  Germany  whose  organ  are  the  Laacher-Stimmen  ;  neither 
is  it  Liberal  Catholic  Germany  which  speaks  through  these 
Bishops — that  Germany  which,  deeply  devoted  to  the  Church 
though  it  be,  distinguishes  carefully  between  it  and  Papacy, 
and  which  finds  utterance  in  the  Allgemeine-Zeitung.  We 
wonder  how  these  Bishops  will  discuss  the  paragraphs  of  the 
Syllabus.  But  when,  in  another  place,  they  innocently  hold 
that  "  the  Church  contains  within  itself  the  most  varied 
communities,  corporations,  and  phases  of  religious  life,  that 
it  tolerates,  nay  protects,  the  differences  of  theoretical  and 
practical  opinions,"  they  seem  to  have  forgotten  much^ 
Shall  it  be  ours  to  remind  them  of  a  certain  institution 
called  the  Index?  Let  us  trust  that  the  general  loyal 
tenour  of  this  their  pastoral  letter  will  make  the  powers  that 
be  overlook  those  black  spots,  as  they  did  with  Eusebius's 
Chronicle  and  Church  History,  which  escaped  condemnation 
in  the  very  first  Index  ever  compiled,  only  through  the 
several  instructive  notes  contained  in  it. 

The  Index  :  it  has  been  rather  busy  again  of  late,  though 
it  does  take  its  time,  and  authors  dead  and  gone  for  a  gene- 
ration may  be  summoned  bodily  to  appear  and  defend  their 
misdeeds ;  or  they  may  live,  like  Dumas  pere,  and,  having 
for  thirty  years  or  so  been  translated  into  all  the  languages 
of  the  world,  watch  the  effect  of  the  interdict  upon  the 
lending  libraries.  But  it  would  really  not  be  very  difficult 
to  find  reasons  why  both  these  aforesaid  documents  should 
not  be  placed  upon  that  list,  whether  on  account  of  a  sen- 
tentia  erronea,  or  hseresi  proxima,  of  a  sententia  de  h&resi 
suspecta,  liseresim  sapiens  (the  smell  of  heresy !),  or  of  one 
"  male  sonans  "  of  a  sentence  offensive  to  pious  ears,  or  one 


224  FIVE  LETTERS  ON 

"  scandalosa,"  "  seditiosa"  or  "  temeraria  ;"  for  it  is  by  these 
canons  that  the  critics  of  the  Vatican  review  books,  and  in 
the  good  old  times  the  matter  might  be  of  some  consequence 
even  to  the  life  and  limb  of  their  authors. 

The  Council  of  Trent  had  a  good  deal  to  say  on  this  Index 
question,  and  we  are  not  sure  that  the  new  Council  may  not 
find  it  among  the  minor  work  now  being  prepared  for  them 
by  the  congregations.  The  origin  of  the  whole  institution 
has  been  found  by  some  in  the  Acts — in  Paul's  exorcising 
the  spirit  of  divination  within  that  certain  damsel  "  which 
brought  her  masters  much  gain  by  soothsaying."  As  early 
as  325  the  Fathers  of  Nicsea  prohibited  Arius's  "  Thalia," 
and  the  first  prototype  of  all  future  Indices  was  prepared  by 
a  Council  under  Gelasius.  True,  the  printed  Acts  of  the 
Councils  speak  of  this  Index  as  dating  of  494,  but,  con- 
sidering that  it  contains  a  work  by  Sedulius  which  did  not 
appear  till  495,  the  last  year  of  Gelasius  must  be  assumed  to 
be  the  right  one,  more  especially  as  all  other  conjectures  do 
not  hold  water.  The  decree  in  question,  "  De  libris  recipi- 
•endis"  itself  does  by  no  means  contain  the  prohibited  books 
only.  On  the  contrary,  it  first  gives  the  Biblical  canon,  as 
first  fixed  at  the  Synod  of  Hippo,  in  393.  It  next  fixes  the 
respective  ranks  of  the  Churches — to  wit,  Eome,  Alexandria, 
Antioch.  And  the  opinion  held  in  the  old  and  later  Church 
that  Peter  and  Paul  had  suffered  on  different  days  under 
Nero  is  declared  heretical.  Next  come  the  Councils  recog- 
nised by  the  Church,  Nicsea,  Ephesus,  and  Chalcedon.  The 
fourth  division  is  devoted  to  the  enumeration  of  the  patristic 
works  approved  or  partly  approved.  To  the  latter  belong 
the  Acts  of  the  Martyrs,  which  are  not  read  in  the  Church 
because  their  authors  are  partly  not  known,  partly  heretics, 
and  would  cause  offence  among  the  ignorant  and  unbelievers. 
Origen  is  only  partly  to  be  read,  inasmuch  as  he  is  approved 
by  Jerome ;  the  rest,  together  with  their  authors,  are  to  be 
disapproved  (renuenda).  Eusebius,  as  we  mentioned  above, 
is  to  be  tolerated,  though  he  has  been  rather  lukewarm  in 
the  first  book  of  his  relation,  and  though  he  has  written  a 
book  in  defence  of  schismatic  Origen.  But  he  has  made 


THE  (ECUMENICAL  COUNCIL.  225 

many  instructive  notes.  The  fifth  division  condemns  un- 
exceptionally  a  number  of  so-called  "  apocryphal "  books  of 
" opera  spuria"  of  "  heretical "  books,  or  books  the  authors 
of  which  were  in  the  odour  of  heresy,  certain  Acts  of  Synods 
—which  have  thus  unfortunately  perished — many  Acts  of 
Apostles  and  Evangels,  and  among  these  not  only  the  Pastor 
Hernias,  but  that  very  book  upon  which  the  dogma  to  be 
promulgated  by  the  forthcoming  Council  is  based — the  Liber 
Transitus  (assumptio)  S.  Marine.  Other  works  condemned 
are  the  writings  of  Tertullian,  Lactantius,  Africanus,  Mon- 
tanus,  &c.,  as  well  as  the  correspondence  between  Christ  and 
Abgar  and  all  phylacteries  and  writings  of  heretics  from 
Simon  Magus  to  Acacius  of  Constantinople.  Many  are  the 
various  readings  in  the  different  codices  of  this  decree,  and 
wild  and  hot  have  been  and  are  the  battles  of  the  learned  on 
the  subject.  But  in  the  main  the  points  at  issue  do  not 
alter  the  facts  here  enumerated.  On  this  book  of  the 
Assumption  we  shall  speak  anon.  Meanwhile  we  will  follow 
in  its  outlines  the  history  of  this  censorial  movement.  As 
long  as  literature  was  a  thing  of  clerks  and  scribes,  who, 
however  fast  they  copied,  could  easily  be  checked,  the 
Church  was  safe.  With  the  invention  of  printing,  however, 
the  matter  began  to  assume  a  serious  aspect,  and  though  it 
was  styled  of  the  Devil  and  the  "  black  art "  in  general, 
it  throve  amain.  The  printing  presses  were,  therefore,  placed 
under  ecclesiastical  supervision.  JSTo  book  was  allowed  to  be 
printed  without  express  permission  of  the  episcopal  bench, 
on  peril  of  excommunication,  of  a  fine  of  a  hundred  ducats, 
the  public  burning  of  the  work  in  question,  and  the  ruin  of 
printer  and  publisher  generally.  But  when  at  the  time 
of  the  Eeformation  the  number  of  pamphlets,  and  treatises, 
and  sermons,  and  letters,  and  theses  became  "  even  as  a 
flood,"  this  simple  control  proved  of  no  avail  and  proper 
Indices  were  printed.  These  contained  the  works  prohibited, 
the  inquisitorial  decrees,  the  names  of  heretics,  whether  they 
had  published  anything  or  not,  the  names  of  printers  who 
had  once  issued  some  heretical  work,  and  whose  future 
books,  whatever  their  contents  might  be,  were  therefore 

Q 


226  FIVE  LETTERS  ON 

prohibited  once  for  all.  Flanders,  France,  Spain  saw  the 
birth  of  the  first  of  these  productions.  Gradually  the  thing 
assumed  an  official  character,  and  Paul  IV.  is  glorified  as 
the  first  summus  censor  librorum  orbis  terrarum.  Editions  of 
this  official  document  appeared  in  Home  in  1549,  in  1557, 
in  1559,  and  Pius  Y.  handed  the  whole  matter  over  to  the 
Council  of  Trent.  The  Council  of  Trent  did  not  seem  to 
care  much  for  this  business,  the  less  as  many  grave  voices 
made  themselves  heard  in  its  midst — how  that  this  was  not 
their  proper  work,  but  belonged  to  a  learned  academy; 
further,  since  "the  Index  as  it  lay  before  them  comprised 
both  good  and  bad  books ; "  and  finally  a  committee  was 
nominated  which  laid  down  ten  rules,  and  from  want  of  time 
—the  Council  sitting  only  about  twenty  years — handed  the 
matter  back  to  the  Papal  Chair.  From  that  time  dates  the 
Sancta  Congregatio  Indicts  Librorum  Prohibitorum.  Insti- 
tuted by  Paul  V.,  it  received  its  constitution  by  Sixtus  V. 
Every  now  and  then  a  new  edition  was  published,  with 
additions.  The  one  published  in  1664  under  Alexander 
VII.,  comprises  the  decree  of  the  5th  of  March,  1616,  con- 
demning Copernicus,  "  de  revolutionism  orbium"  and  that 
of  the  23rd  of  August,  1634,  on  Galileo's  Dialogue.  And 
ever  since  it  has  continued  its  labours  with  grim  rigour,  in 
spite  of  Benedict  XIV.'s  somewhat  milder  regulations,  and 
some  of  its  latest  decrees  were  directed  against  the  moderate 
German  philosopher  and  theologian  Gunther — decrees  which 
have  hastened  the  crisis  in  Germany. 

One  of  the  questions  put  before  the  Theological  Faculty 
of  Munich  turned  upon  the  point  whether  a  Papal  ex  cathedra 
utterance  was  or  was  not  binding  as  such  upon  every  Chris- 
tian's conscience?  And  the  professors  confessed  not  to 
know  what  an  ex  cathedra  utterance  of  the  Pope  meant. 
There  are  no  criteria,  they  say,  whereby  to  recognize  the 
same.  There  are,  they  allege,  no  less  than  twenty  different 
hypotheses  on  the  conditions  requisite  for  a  like  ex  cathedra 
decision.  "  And  perhaps  the  Council  will  wisely  decide  that 
point,  together  with  the  Infallibility" — they  conclude.  This 
ex  cathedra  has  indeed  been  a  puzzle  to  many  within  and 


THE  (ECUMENICAL  COUNCIL.  227 

without  the  Church.  A  distinction  is  made  between  the 
utterances  of  the  Pope  as  "  Doctor  Privatus  "  and  as  "  Doctor 
Ecclesite"  but  no  one  knows  when  he  speaks  as  one  or  as  the 
other.  All  that  is  required,  or  rather  presupposed,  by  the 
Church  is  that,  when  speaking  ex  cathedra,  he  should  have 
consulted  some  one  first,  should  have  gravely  pondered  over 
the  matter  in  hand,  should  have  prayed  that  God  might 
enlighten  him.  But  even  if  he  had  not  done  so  it  cannot 
niter  his  decision,  for,  say  the  ecclesiastical  authorities,  this 
would  open  the  doors  to  all  manner  of  doubt  and  heresy, 
since  any  decision  of  his  might  be  put  aside  on  the  plea  that 
he  had  not  sufficiently  pondered  over  the  matter.  And,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  the  Church  has  put  aside  many  an  undoubted 
ex  cathedra  and  "  doctor  ecclesite  "  decision,  such  as  Innocent 
lll.'s  decree  that  all  the  ceremonial  laws  of  the  Deuteronomy 
are  binding  for  the  Church,  since  Deuteronomy  means  the 
second  law,  and  the  second  law  could  only  mean  the  second 
€hurch,  which  is  Christianity;  or,  to  go  a  little  further  back, 
as  Vigilius'  decision  on  another  literary  production,  the 
writings  of  the  three  theologians,  Theodore,  Theodoretus, 
and  Ibas,  suspected  of  Nestorianism.  In  546  he  declared 
them  to  be  orthodox,  in  547  he  pronounced  them  to  be 
heterodox,  and  in  553  again  declared  them  orthodox,  whereby 
he  offended  the  fifth  (Ecumenical  Council  at  Constantinople, 
convoked  by  Justinian,  which,  as  he  defended  his  views  by 
the  "  Constitution,"  broke  off  all  Church  communication 
with  him.  Whereupon  he  recanted  personally,  saying  that 
he  had  hitherto  in  his  opposition  to  the  Council  and  its 
views  been  the  instrument  of  Satan.  He  died,  however,  on 
his  way  back  to  Kome. 

But  this  question  belongs  rather  to  the  chapter  of  the 
"  Infallibility "  and  its  historical  progress.  We  have  only 
turned  to  it  here  by  way  of  digression  on  the  ex  cathedra. 
And  well  observes  an  old  writer,  Ebermann,  that,  on  the 
whole,  though  there  may  be  occasionally  a  weak  or  ignorant 
Pope,  yet  his  words  must  be  considered  binding  in  all  ways, 
since  it  is  not  so  much  he  who  speaks,  but  that  through  him 
speaks  He  who  before  now  has  spoken  through  the  mouth 

Q  2 


228  FIVE  LETTERS  ON     . 

even  of  a  she  ass—"  qw  novit  etiam  per  asinam  loquentem 
dirigere  iter  nostrum" 

We  shall  speak  now  of  the  most  innocuous  of  new  dogmas 
to  be  inaugurated  by  the  Council,  that  of  the  Assumption  of 
the  Virgin  Mary.  We  have  mentioned  already  that  the 
fundamental  work  in  question  stands  on  the  first  Index  of 
Gelasius.  And  as  late  as  the  ninth  century,  Usuard's  "Mar- 
tyrologium '  says,  under  the  heading  "  Dormitio  Sanctte  Dei 
G-enitricis  Maria?"  that  although  her  body,  that  venerable 
temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  was  hidden  by  the  Divine 
Council,  yet  the  sobriety  of  the  Church  had  preferred  pious 
ignorance  (cum  pietate  nescire)  to  teaching  aught  frivolous 
or  apocryphal  on  the  subject.  There  are  a  number  of 
versions  of  the  legend  thus  condemned  extant  in  Greek,  in 
Latin,  in  Arabic,  in  Syriac,  being  more  or  less  translations  of 
each  other.  Tbe  story  is  by  no  means  bereft  of  a  certain 
poetical  fervour,  though  some  of  its  features  belong  to  other 
Greek  and  Aramaic  legends,  notably  that  cycle  of  sagas  of 
the  Assumption  of  Moses,  to  which  Jude  alludes  in  his 
Epistle.  As  authors  of  the  Greek  and  Latin  respectively 
are  mentioned  John  the  Apostle  and  Bishop  Melito,  of 
Sardis;  the  latter  directing  his  version  principally  against 
one  Leucius.  Thorny  are  the  critical  questions  which  beset 
even  this  little  tale  ;  but  for  them  we  must  refer  our  readers 
to  the  proper  folios,  or  octavos,  as  the  Arabic,  the  Syriac, 
the  Greek,  and  the  Latin  have  all  been  edited  within  tbe 
last  fifteen  years  or  so,  some  even  for  the  first  time.  And 
these  are  the  outlines  of  the  legend. 

Two  years  after  the  ascension  of  Christ  (but  even  here,  at 
the  outset,  we  are  met  by  discrepancies  as  to  date  in  the 
various  versions)  an  angel  appeared  to  the  Virgin,  bearing  a 
palm  branch,  saying,  "Hail,  Mary,  full  of  Grace,  God  is 
with  thee.  On  the  third  day  from  this  thine  assumption 
shall  come  to  pass,  thy  Son  expects  thee  in  the  midst  of  the 
angels."  And  she  begged  that  all  the  Apostles  might  be 
summoned  near  her.  The  angel  promised  it  and  departed 
amid  great  radiance.  And  all  of  a  sudden,  wherever  the 
Apostles  were,  even  to  the  ends  of  the  earth,  John  in 


THE  (ECUMENICAL  COUNCIL.  229 

Ephesus,  and  Simon  in  Boine,  and  Paul  in  Tiberias,  and 
Thomas  in  India,  and  Matthew  in  Berytus,  and  Bartholomew 
in  Armenia,  &c.,  they  were  lifted  up  by  a  cloud  and  brought 
to  the  door  of  Mary.  And  when  they  had  all  prayed  there 
•arose  at  the  third  hour  of  the  third  day  a  great  commotion 
and  earthquake,  and  Christ  descended  in  a  cloud  with  hosts 
of  Angels,  and  Michael  took  Mary's  soul  into  Paradise. 
Next  the  Apostles  went  to  bury  the  body,  while  a  great 
light  shone  around  them,  singing  "  When  Israel  went  forth 
from  Egypt."  But  while  they  went  to  the  valley  of  Jeho- 
shaphat  a  certain  Jew  came  out  of  the  town  and  began  to 
abuse  them  and  to  take  hold  of  the  bier,  whereupon  his 
hands  clung  to  it  and  he  could  not  remove  them,  suffering 
great  agonies,  while  the  Angels  in  the  clouds  struck  the 
people  with  blindness.  He  is  then  converted,  seeing  the 
miracle  and  having  kissed  the  bier  is  healed,  and  the  palm 
branch  is  given  to  him  that  he  might  remove  the  blindness 
from  the  eyes  of  the  people,  and  when  they  had  buried  her 
and  closed  the  vault,  Christ  appeared  again  and  asked  the 
Apostles  what  they  thought  he  ought  to  do  for  the  Virgin. 
Whereupon  they  counselled  him  that  as  He  had  taken  her 
soul  He  should  also  take  her  body.  And  this  was  done. 
Michael  rolled  the  stone  from  the  mouth  of  the  tomb  and 
Mary  sprang  forth  and  blessed  the  Lord,  and  He  kissed  her; 
and  as  she  rose  Heavenwards  she  threw  her  girdle  down  to 
St.  Thomas,  who  had  been  saying  Mass  in  India,  and  who 
had  suddenly  been  transported  to  Mount  Olivet.  He  kissed 
it  and  took  it  to  the  Apostles,  who  were  still  assembled  at 
her  now  empty  tomb.  They  would  not  at  first  believe  that 
he  had  seen  her  rise  to  Heaven,  but  when  they  saw  the 
girdle  they  were  convinced.  Then  the  same  cloud  which 
had  carried  the  Apostles  from  their  different  places  took 
them  up  again  and  transported  them  to  their  different  places, 
"  even  as  Abacuc,  the  prophet,  carried  the  food  to  Daniel  in 
the  lions'  den  and  was  carried  back  to  Judaea." 

One  MS.  concludes  thus,  after  stating  that  the  author  was 
"  Joseph,  who  placed  the  body  of  Christ  in  my  sepulchre  and 
have  seen  and  spoken  with  Him  after  His  resurrection," — 


230  FIVE  LETTEES  OX 

"  and  let  every  Christian  know  that  he  who  has  this  book  by 
him  or  in  his  house,  whether  he  be  an  ecclesiastic,  or  a  lay- 
man,  or  a  woman,  the  Devil  will  not  hurt  him,  his  son  will 
not  be  a  lunatic,  or  a  demoniac,  or  deaf,  or  blind.  In  his 
house  there  will  be  no  sudden  death.  Whosoever  shall  read 
this  sermon  shall  be  saved." 

And  this  is  the  basis  of  the  dogma  of  the  Assumption,  ta 
be  solemnly  proclaimed,  if  all  goes  well,  perchance  yet  in 
this  year  of  grace,  1869,  as  one  of  the  means  to  restore 
universal  peace  and  goodwill  among  men,  and  to  remove  all 
evils  "  both  from  the  Church  and  the  world."  And  still  the 
world  stands  aside,  silent,  preferring  its  evils,  but  marvelling 
greatly. 

OCTOBEK  5,  1869. 

" Eritis  sicut  Deus — "  "and  ye  shall  be  like  unto  God, 
knowing  good  and  evil."  .  .  .  Here  is  the  dogma  of  the 
Infallibility,  worded  very  precisely.  We  know  Avho  first  laid 
it  down  and  what  ensued.  If  we  are  not  mistaken,  it  is 
Mephisto  also  who,  in  the  guise  of  Faust,  inscribes  these 
words  into  the  album  of  the  young  student. 

There  is  a  peculiar  fascination  to  our  minds  in  this  dogma. 
The  most  repulsive,  the  most  humiliating  though  it  be  to  all 
human  dignity,  there  is  yet  a  something  about  it  which 
arouses  a  morbid  curiosity.  The  very  boldness  with  which 
for  the  last  five  or  six  hundred  years — for  full  thirteen 
Christian  centuries  no  one  dared  even  to  hint  at  a  like 
notion — it  has  ever  and  anon  lifted  up  its  face  among  men  ; 
that  boldness  with  which,  at  this  hour,  with  all  that  has 
gone  before  of  Kome  and  its  Popes,  it  claims  public  re- 
cognition, endows  it  with  a  weird  interest.  And  its  manifold 
stages  as  well  as  thu  means  by  which  it  grew  do,  indeed, 
form  a  rare  chapter  in  the  history,  not  merely  of  Koine,  but 
of  all  mankind. 

But  we  must  forbear,  for  the  present,  to  speak  of  it.  Wre 
shall  rather  turn  to  the  manifold  signs  and  sounds  around  us, 
sounds  not  very  unlike  those  that  issue  startlingly  and 
abruptly,  and  not  without  casual  admixtures  of  grotesqueness, 


THE  (ECUMENICAL  COUNCIL.  231 

from  a  tuning  orchestra.  And  first  of  all  there  is  that 
Papal  despatch  to  "Dr.  Camming  of  Scotland, — Care  of 
Archbishop  Manning" — which  has  arrived  since  our  last. 
There  is  a  blushing  coyness  displayed  in  it  with  regard  to 
this  same  Infallibility,  even  as  that  of  a  bride  before  the 
happy  day.  In  one  place  it  is  the  "opinion  held  by  the 
Church  as  to  the  infallibility  of  its  judgment ;"  in  another, 
"  we  thereby  signified  that  the  primacy,  both  of  honour  and 
of  jurisdiction,  which  was  conferred  upon  Peter  and  his 
successors  by  the  Founder  of  the  Church,  is  placed  beyond 
the  hazard  of  disputation."  Turn  we,  however,  to  another 
passage  of  a  more  instructive  nature  in  this  letter.  "No 
room  can  be  given  at  the  Council  for  the  defence  of  errors 
which  have  already  been  condemned."  Does  this  mean  that 
Councils  do  not  reopen  questions  settled  by  other  Councils, 
notably  questions  on  "  errors  condemned  "  by  them  ?  Our 
readers  are  acquainted,  no  doubt,  with  that  famous  work  of 
Pseudo-Isidorus, — those  hundred  and  odd  forged  decretals 
and  synodal  acts,  which  ever  since  Pope  Nicolas  I.  have 
worked  such  terrible  mischief,  and  which  now  are  con- 
demned by  the  Church  itself.  Can  it  be  that  a  new  history 
of  all  the  Councils  has  been  prepared  by  those  cardinals  and 
professors  now  so  busy  in  the  Vatican  in  mum  Delphinorum  ? 
If  not,  we  fail  to  see  the  force  of  the  statement.  Or  does  it 
mean  that  there  will  be  no  time  for  discussion — that  there  is 
still  alive  in  the  Vatican  that  fondly-cherished  hope  of 
making  this  Council  "like  unto  that  of  Chalcedon" — i.e., 
of  three  weeks'  duration?  Convoked  by  the  Emperor 
Marcian,  and  subsequently  approved  by  Leo  I.,  that  Council 
sat  from  the  8th  October  to  the  1st  of  November,  and  the 
assembled  prelates  worked  so  hard  approving  the  ready- 
made  canons  (the  number  of  which  was  at  once  disputed) 
that  they  could  have  put  both  our  Houses  of  Parliament,  of 
Convocation,  nay,  even  the  Eitual  Commission,  to  the  blush. 
In  14  (or  13)  days  they  held  no  less  than  about  21  sittings. 
But,  unfortunately,  of  all  the  manifold  meetings  of  this 
(Ecumenical  Council  /car'  efo^z/,  only  the  first  six  were 
subsequently  allowed  to  have  been  oecumenical,  and  it  has 


232  FIVE  LETTERS  ON 

been  deemed  expedient  to  preserve  a  record  of  them 
alone  in  the  oldest  MSS.  of  the  Synodal  Acts.  Worse  still, 
this  great  prototype  of  the  coming  Council  ended  by  the 
Papal  Legate  Lucentius  uttering  a  protest  "against  what 
had  been  decided  upon  contrary  to  the  canons,  and  he  would 
go  and  tell  it  to  his  master,  the  Apostolic  Bishop,  so  as  to 
enable  him  to  come  to  a  decision  with  regard  to  the  insult 
thus  offered  to  his  own  chair  and  the  breaking  of  the  canons." 
And  nobody  cared.  The  protest  was  duly  entered  into  the 
protocol,  and  the  Commissioners  adjourned  the  meeting, 
quietly  remarking,  "  The  decisions  we  have  read  the  whole 
Synod  has  confirmed."  The  point  in  which  the  Council  thus 
set  aside  the  Pope  and  his  demands  was  neither  more  nor 
less  than  the  setting  up  of  a  "  New  Eome  " — Constantinople 
to  wit.  "  To  the  chair  of  the  Old  Eome,"  says  the  twenty- 
eighth  Chalcedonian  canon,  "the  Fathers  have  vouchsafed 
certain  prerogatives  on  account  of  its  leing  an  Imperial 
residence,  and  on  the  same  grounds  have  the  150  Bishops 
here  assembled  vouchsafed  the  same  privileges  to  New 
Home,  which  should,  for  the  same  reasons  as  the  old,  be 
exalted  in  ecclesiastical  matters  even  as  the  elder  Imperial 
Eome  "  —  ("  KOI  ev  rot?  efCfcXrjo'iaa'TiKQi'S  fjLe<ya\vveo'6at, 
Trpdy/jiao-L '').  Arid  this  objectionable  canon,  which  strikes  at 
the  root  of  Eoman  supremacy,  remained  in  force  in  spite  of 
Leo's  loud  and  violent  protest  and  threats,  and  breaking  off 
of  communications,  and  the  rest  of  it.  Absit  omen.  Several 
other  vexatious  things  came  to  pass  at  that  Council,  among 
them  that  trifling  mishap  which  occurred  in  the  sixteenth 
sitting.  When  the  Imperial  Commissioners  requested  both 
the  Eoman  and  the  Greek  Legates  to  substantiate  their 
claims,  the  Eornan  Legate,  Paschasius,  read  out  a  translation 
of  the  sixth  Nicsean  canon,  with  the  little  addition,  "  Quod 
Ecclesia  Eomana  semper  liabuit  Primatum"  Whereupon, 
say  the  Synodal  Acts,  the  secretary  of  the  Consistory, 
Constantine,  forthwith  produced  the  Greek  original,  wherein 
not  a  trace  of  those  words  was  to  be  found.  And  the 
Eoman  Legates  were  much  confounded.  How  that  passage 
came  to  be  there  in  the  Latin  document  "  none  could  ever 


THE  (ECUMENICAL  COUNCIL.  233 

tell."     Howbeit,  is  it  not  the  only  sudden  "  various  reading" 
in  the  history  of  Roman  documents. 

No ;  Chalcedon  was  not  a  happy  precedent  to  go  back  to. 
We  do  not  say  that  either  Paris,  or  Vienna,  or  Madrid  is 
very  anxious  just  now  to  play  "  New  Kome," — Council,  Pope, 
and  all.  We  have  repeatedly  had  to  record  their  painful 
indifference  regarding  all  things  connected  with  the  Council ; 
but  there  were  better  examples  to  choose  from,  we  should 
have  thought.  Why  not  take,  for  instance,  the  very  first 
(Ecumenical  held  at  Kome,  in  1123,  under  Sixtus  II., 
whereof  there  are  absolutely  no  contemporary  accounts  ? 
On  that  occasion  there  were  assembled  nine  hundred  mem- 
bers, that  is  to  say,  two  Abbots  to  one  Bishop,  and  its  very 
first  canon  starts  proudly  with  the  words  : — "  We  prohibit  by 
the  authority  of  the  Apostolical  See," — the  Fathers  as- 
sembled being,  so  to  say,  nowhere.  It  was  opened  on  the 
18th  of  March,  and  on  the  6th  of  April  the  Bull  embodying 
its  work  was  already  issued,  signed  by  the  Pope  and  the 
Cardinals.  There  certainly  was  a  little  unpleasantness 
mixed  up  with  it  too.  The  case  of  the  Archbishop  of  Pisa, 
to  whom  the  Pope  had  first  given  the  right  of  consecrating 
Bishops,  and  whom  he  had  subsequently  deprived  of  it,  had 
been  submitted  to  the  Council  by  Calixtus,  though,  as  he 
said,  "  No  mortal  has  a  right  to  judge  a  decision  of  a  Pope." 
And  when  the  judgment  of  the  Council  went — as  a  matter  of 
course — against  the  Archbishop,  he  threw  his  ring  and  his 
crosier  at  the  Pope's  feet — "for  which  the  Pope  severely 
reprimanded  him."  Or  the  very  next  (Ecumenical,  16  years 
later,  the  second  of  the  Lateran,  might  have  been  taken  as  a 
pattern.  Innocent  II.  opened  that  with  an  extraordinary 
speech,  likening  his  own  Bishops  to  her  who  had  received 
ring  and  staff  from  Judah  (Thamar).  He  next  proceeded, 
according  to  Harduin,  to  snatch  the  crosiers  from  the  hands 
of  the  Bishops  of  his  rival,  Petrus  Leonis,  and  to  tear 
with  his  own  sainted  hands  the  pallia  from  their  shoulders. 
Among  the  other  business  of  the  session  there  was  also 
the  excommunication  of  King  Roger  of  Sicily ;  while 
Theobald  of  Canterbury  was  invested  with  the  pallium,  and 


234  FIVE  LETTERS  ON 

the  founder  of  Fulda — whence  the  Bishops  lately  issued  their 
manifesto — was  canonized.  These  and  a  few  other  things 
settled,  the  assembled  fathers  and  passive  witnesses  through- 
out were  sent  home.  The  (Ecumenical  which  followed,  in 
1179,  held  altogether  three  sittings,  wherein  no  less  than 
27  decrees  or  capitula  were  discussed.  On  the  debates  the 
records  are  absolutely  silent — for  the  simple  reason  that 
there  were  none.  Its  official  title  had  already  become 
"Generale  Concilium  Summi  Pontificis."  Some  of  its 
canons  are,  by  the  way,  instructive. 

For  example,  in  order  "to  obviate  the  further  selling 
of  Church  ornaments,  for  the  purpose  of  covering  the 
expenses  caused  by  episcopal  visitations,"  it  was  ruled  that 
no  Archbishop  should  henceforth  go  about  with  more  than 
forty  to  fifty  horses,  nor  any  Cardinal  with  more  than  twenty- 
five  ;  a  bishop  was  not  to  exceed  the  number  of  from  twenty 
to  thirty,  an  Archdeacon  from  five  to  six,  and  Deans  were 
not  to  have  more  than  two:  which  seems  Lard.  Neither 
should  they  bring  hounds  or  falcons  to  their  visitations. 
Another  canon  rules  that  churches,  Church  benefices,  and 
the  like  should  not  be  given  away  before  they  have  become 
vacant.  By  a  third  canon  ecclesiastics  of  a  higher  degree 
are  to  dismiss  their  concubines,  and  a  cleric  who  frequents- 
nunneries  "  more  than  is  necessary  "  shall  be  reprimanded  by 
his  bishops,  and  eventually  be  deprived  of  his  Church 
benefice.  The  last  but  one  canon,  the  one  renewed  in  the 
happy  days  of  the  Concordat  in  Austria,  rules  that  neither 
Jew  nor  Saracen  shall  keep  Christian  servants,  and  that 
those  who  live  in  the  same  locality  with  a  Jew  or  a  Saracen 
shall  be  excommunicated.  But  if  history  is  silent  as  to 
debates  at  this  Council,  it  is  a  pleasure  to  learn,  at  least, 
that  there  were  present  two  English,  two  Scotch,  and  one 
Irish  Bishop,  Laurentius,  who  possessed  three  cows,  and  was 
appointed  Legate  of  Ireland. 

We  have  digressed.  We  cannot  help  thinking  that  even 
the  Amen,  as  it  was,  and  still  is,  expected  from  the  Bishops, 
may  be  a  long-drawn-out  one.  Church  music  knows  of 
certain  compositions  called  Amen  fugues,  and  many  are 


THE  (ECUMENICAL  COUNCIL.  235 

the  ups  and  downs  in  these  same  performances.  To  return,, 
however,  once  more  to  the  Pope's  correspondence  "  towards  " 
our  Scotch  divine.  There  was  just  one  little  point  which  we 
rather  objected  to.  His  Holiness  had  "seen  from  the 
newspapers."  Now,  we  know  that  his  Holiness  does  not 
disdain  the  noble  pastime  of  billiards.  If  we  may  believe 
trustworthy  authority  he  is  not  a  bad  hand  at  it  either.  We 
confess  that  it  always  gladdens  our  heart  to  think  of  his 
Holiness,  against  whom  personally  we  have  nothing  but  the 
tenderest  feelings,  beguiling  an  occasional  hour  in  this 
gently  frolicsome  manner.  Some  of  his  predecessors  sought 
their  pleasures  elsewhere.  But  "  seeing  from  the  news- 
papers !"  He  does  not  even  say  in  the  Oivilta,  or  in  the 
Tablet,  or  in  the  Westminster  Gazette,  but  newspapers!  It 
seems  to  overthrow  all  one's  notions.  Holiness,  Infallibility 
itself,  skimming  a  column  of  The  Times  between  two  strokes. 
He  really  should  not  have  said  it.  And  if  that  Patriarch  of 
Constantinople  irreverently  refused  to  look  at  the  Encyclical 
because  "it  had  already  appeared  in  the  public  papers"  his 
case  was  different.  Abbate  Testa  did  not  present  himself 
before  him  until  many  weeks  after  the  Encyclical  had  been 
in  print.  But  a  letter  to  Kome,  even  "from  Scotland," 
ought  to  have  reached  the  Pope  before  the  newspapers.  But 
let  that  pass.  Let  his  Holiness  cheerfully  continue  to  read 
his  papers.  His  path  is  not  altogether  strewn  with  roses. 
Hadrian  IV.  used  to  say  that  "the  most  miserable  state  on 
earth  was  that  of  a  Pope ;  his  throne  was  surrounded  with 
spikes  on  all  sides;  his  happiness  was  bitterness,  and  a 
burden  too  heavy  to  bear,  weighed  his  shoulders  down  even 
to  the  ground :" — a  woful  utterance  echoed  by  Nicolas  V., 
who  added  that  "  there  was  not  a  more  miserable  and  un- 
happy creature  on  earth  than  himself,"  and  that  also  "  there 
was  not  a  soul  that  would  tell  him  the  truth."  More  heart- 
rending still  is  that  bitter  cry  of  Marcellus  II.,  that  he  did 
not  see  "  how  any  Pope  could  ever  be  saved !"  . 

The  interval  has  brought  us  also  the  episode  of  Pere 
Hyacinthe,  the  Carmelite  superior,  the  pet  of  Notre  Dame, 
who  "  raises  his  protest  "  with  no  uncertain  voice.  He  will 


236  FIVE  LETTERS  ON 

not  be  gagged.  A  "  Son  of  the  Saints,"  he  will  not  be  "  one 
of  the  dumb  dogs."  He,  too,  appeals  to  the  Council  "as 
a  Christian  and  a  priest,  against  those  doctrines  and  those 
practices  which  are  called  Roman,  but  which  are  not 
Christian."  If  this  Council  should  not  have  freedom  of 
deliberation,  which,  he  says,  is  "  the  essential  character 
of  an  (Ecumenical  Council,"  he  will  "  cry  aloud  to  God  and 
to  man  to  claim  another,  really  assembled  in  the  Holy 
Spirit."  He  withdraws  from  the  monastery,  which  is 
changed  for  him  into  "  a  prison  of  the  soul ;"  he  "  rejects 
the  chains  which  he  is  offered ;"  he  appeals  to  Christ  him- 
self, even  as  Huss  did.  "  Ad  tuum,  Domine  Jesu,  tribunal 
appello"  And  what  is  the  answer?  Many  words  of  hard 
abuse,  many  sighs,  many  tokens  also  of  applause,  many 
conjectures,  and  "  It  is  said  that  the  Keverend  Father  will  be 
excommunicated." 

Excommunication  —  Inquisition  —  to  us  what  do  these 
words  mean  ?  Even  to  him  what  will  they  be  ?  But  there 
was  a  time  when  they  did  mean  something  worse  than  a 
thousand  deaths.  We  shall  take  an  opportunity  of  recalling 
these  ghastly  subjects  to  our  readers,  so  that  those  who  have 
forgotten  may  remember  and  never  again  forget.  If  other 
countries  have,  from  "  religious "  motives,  poured  out 
human  blood  like  water,  they  have  bitterly  repented,  and 
they  have  as  with  one  accord  inscribed  independence  of  re- 
ligious opinion  upon  their  banner.  And  Koine  ? — She  issues  the 
Syllabus.  This  Syllabus  will  not  hurt  a  fly,  but  it  proclaims 
aloud  that  Rome  has  not  changed,  will  not  change,  and 
-cannot  change.  Non  possumus.  We  have  already  expressed 
our  profound  sympathy  with  Pere  Hyacinthe,  as  we  would 
with  any  one  who  cried  out  from  the  depths  of  his  soul. 
But  we  confess  that,  though  we  see  in  him  a  champion 
very  different  from  many  who  have  issued  forth  like  himself 
in  single  combat  against  Eome,  we  know  not  yet  what  he 
means  to  do  beyond  leaving  his  convent.  Will  he  arraign 
the  authorities  that  bade  him  revoke,  before  the  Council  ? 
But  he  at  once  declares  that  he  will  not  submit  if  judgment 
goes  against  him.  And,  altogether,  to  talk  of  Hyacinthism 


THE  (ECUMENICAL  COUNCIL.  237 

as  some  French  organs  already  do,  seems  to  us  a  little  too 
premature.  Has  he,  beyond  the  wild  cry  caused  by  that 
long  Koman  hand  which  laid  itself  with  an  iron  grip  around 
his  neck — has  he  a  programme  ?  How  far  does  he  object  to 
Borne?  And  what  is  the  meaning  of  another  Council  to 
which  he  will  appeal  ?  Composed  of  whom  ?  How  far  does 
he  renounce,  if  he  renounces  them  at  all,  those  words  of  his 
which  we  happen  to  have  before  us,  contained  in  his  Con- 
ferences of  1866  ? — "  Nous  sommes  les  representants  humains 
de  la  souverainete  divine  sur  les  consciences.  ...  La 
souverainete  de  Dieu,  le  Koyaume  de  Dieu,  c'est  1'Eglise." 
And  again,  in  defining  this  Catholic  system,  he  calls  it,  "  Le 
regne  de  Dieu  sur  les  consciences !  .  .  .  Nous  sommes 
les  representants  de  Dieu.  Le  regne  cle  Dieu  existe  ici-bas,. 
organise,  cornplet,  vivant — c'est  1'Eglise."  If  the  Catholic 
Church  be  "  the  reign  of  God  over  the  consciences,"  we  do 
not  quite  see  how  he  can  object  to  its  decrees.  Nor  does  he 
seem  inclined  to  reject  what  he  held  before  in  any  way. 
Let  us  wait  and  see.  We  would  neither  underrate  the 
weight  of  his  step  nor  expect  too  much.  Meanwhile,  we 
cannot  help  congratulating  the  eloquent  and  bold  friar  that 
he  lives  in  the  Paris  of  1869 — though  it  be  the  year  of  the 
Vatican  Council. 

And  there  is  balm  in  Gilead,  even  in  Munich.  Two- 
professors  have  not  shared  in  that  well-known  reply  given  by 
the  theological  faculty  of  Munich.  They  answer  by  them- 
selves. But  we  fear,  though  this  answer  is  intended  as  a 
pre-eminently  ultramontane  manifesto,  it  will  please  Eome 
even  less  than  the  other.  It  is  a  very  long  document,  which 
we  have  printed  already,  and  the  gist  of  which  is  best  given 
in  its  own  words  : — 

"  From  this  detailed  reply  to  the  five  questions  there  follows  the 
dogmatic  general  result  that  an  eventual  sanctioning  on  the  part  of  the 
next  (Ecumenical  Council  of  the  Syllabus  as  it  lies  before  us,  and  a  raising 
into  a  dogma  of  the  Infallibility  of  the  Pope  as  speaking  ex  cathedra  would 
not  alter  directly  (unmittelbar)  as  such  the  present  status  quo  between- 
Church  and  State,  and  would  not  carry  with  it  as  a  doctrine  binding  upon 
the  conscience  of  every  Christian  the  dogma  of  a  divinely  instituted  sove- 
reignty of  the  Pope  over  the  Monarchs  and  the  Governments.  Nor  would 


-238  FIVE  LETTERS  ON 

the  further  doctrine  of  a  divine  origin  of  the  personal  and  real  immunities 
•of  the  clergy,  not  merely  generally,  but  also  in  detail  and  purely  as  such, 
produce  any  transforming  influence  upon  school  teaching  as  far  as  the  rela- 
tions between  Church  and  State  are  concerned." 

If  our  readers  should  find  this  not  over  easy  to  compre- 
hend,  we   can  assure  them   that   it   was  far  from  easy  to 
translate — more  especially  as  there  is  not  a  single  full  stop 
in  the  whole  paragraph.     We  had  first  to  uncoil  many  a 
weary   noun   and    adjective   and    participle,   and   what   we 
believe  are  called  "  auxiliary  sentences."     But  if  both  our 
readers  and  ourselves  may  complain  of  this  hard  task,  that  of 
the  dissenting  professors  was  harder  still.     No  wonder  they 
took  time.     Their  answer  to  Count  Hohenlohe  goes  to  show 
in  the  main  that  with  all  the  Infallibility  of  Church  and 
Pope,  the  decrees  of  Council  would,  as  far  as  their  practical 
bearing  is  concerned,  be  mere  official  waste  paper  ;  nay,  not 
even  would  the   teachers   of  dogmatic  theology  be  bound 
io  take  notice  of  them.     More  especially  as  regards  the 
supremacy  of  the  Pope  over  temporal  Governments,  they 
argue  (in  reply  to  question  two),  that  whether  this  supre- 
macy be  declared  a  "potestas  direeta"  or  "  potestas  indireeta 
in  temporalia"  it  mattered  absolutely  nothing.     Because 
"such   a  dogma  could  not   be   laid  down  as  binding  to  a 
Christian  conscience,  but  would  ever  remain  matter  of  free 
theological  opinion, — even   if  it   could  be  proved  valid  by 
scientific  arguments  of  the  most  profound  and  striking  kind." 
Speaking  of  the  ex  cathedra  utterance  of  the  Pope,  they,  too, 
find  it  difficult  to  decide  what  constitutes  a  like  "  locutio" 
and  hope,  as  did  the   other  professors,  that  this  may  be 
settled  by  the  "  infallible  "  ecclesiastical  office  itself.     As  to 
Father  Schrader,  the  official  framer  of  the  Syllabus  done 
from   the    negative    into   the    positive,   he  seems  already 
disavowed,  thrown  overboard,  found  wanting.     There  is  not 
one  word  of  him.     On  the  contrary,  these  two  malcontent 
professors   always   "  assume   that   the    paragraphs   of    this 
Syllabus  errorum  (by  a  curious  misprint  the  word  terrorum 
figures  in  our  copy)  should  be  rejected  unchanged  as  they 
are."     But  here  comes  a  delightful  piece  of  comfort.     Even 


THE  (ECUMENICAL  COUNCIL.  239 

if  they  be  so  rejected,  in  "  Bausch  imd  Bogen,"  they  argue 
•"  they  would  not  for  all  that  be  rejected  as  heresies,  at  least 
not  in  toto ;  but  there  would  be  many  different  degrees 
of  censure  attached  to  them,  as,  indeed,  most  of  these  para- 
graphs have  substantially  already  been  condemned  by  the 
•Church."  They  would  only  be  as  a  Papal  letter  has  already 
styled  them — "  Propositions  and  doctrines  respectively  false, 
audacious,  scandalous,  erroneous,  injurious  to  the  Holy  See, 
•derogatory  to  its  rights,  subversive  to  the  rule  of  the  Church 
and  its  divinity,  schismatical,  heretical,  and  contrary  to  the 
Council  of  Trent."  And,  the  document  naively  adds,  has 
not  the  Council  of  Constance  called  many  of  WycM's  and 
Huss's  theses  only  sententiss  erroneas,  temer 'arise,  seditioste" 
and  has  not  Martin  V.  himself  confirmed  that  mild  judgment, 
instead  of  calling  them  heretical  f  Good  Pope !  Most 
lenient  Council !  But  did  we  not  read  somewhere  that  this 
same  benevolent  Council  burnt  that  man  Huss  alive  ?  And 
were  not,  only  the  other  day,  vast  multitudes  gathered 
together  in  that  ancient  city  of  Prague  to  do  honour  to  the 
memory  of  the  "  Saint  and  Martyr,"  some  of  whose  opinions 
had  been  declared  "  erroneous  ?"  Let  these  professors 
beware!  They  are  uttering  many  senientias  seditiosas! 
Neither  does  it  seem  very  likely  that  the  Vatican  will  smile 
upon  them  for  raking  up,  just  at  this  moment,  with  the  most 
innocent  air  in  the  world,  memories  which  it  fain  would 
bury  out  of  sight.  In  their  German  thoroughness — unless 
they  be  wolves  in  sheep's  clothing — they  go  over  a  goodly 
list  of  decrees  on  the  part  of  Popes,  backed  by  Councils, 
against  the  temporal  powers: — how  Innocent  deposed 
Frederick  II.  in  the  Council  of  Lyons,  by  virtue  of  the 
power  of  binding  and  loosing  given  to  him  by  Christ — words 
into  the  original  meaning  and  purport  of  which  we  may  enter 
by-and-by ;  how  his  subjects  were  declared  free  of  their  oath 
of  allegiance  and  their  duty  of  obedience  towards  him  both 
as  Emperor  and  King,  and  how  the  Excommunicatio  latze 
sententise  was  pronounced  upon  all  those  who  should  give 
him  any  "advice,  help,  or  favour."  And,  continue  these 
indiscreet  advocates,  did  not  the  Council  of  Trent  excommu- 


240  FIVE  LETTERS  ON 

nicate  all  those — Emperors,  Kings,  Dukes,  Princes,  &c.— 
who  allowed  duelling  within  their  domain?  and  were  not 
their  cities,  fortresses,  or  places  bestowed  upon  them  by  the 
Church,  near  which  a  duel  should  happen,  forfeited  ? — an 
ecclesiastical  fact  which,  for  all  things  in  the  world,  looks 
very  much  like  a  special  reminder  to  Napoleon  III.  and  the 
gallant  journalists  of  the  Second  Empire.  Indeed,  they  say, 
if  all  those  emanations  against  the  temporal  Powers,  by 
Gregory  VII.,  by  Urban  IT.,  by  Lucius  III.,  by  Innocent  III., 
by  Honorius  III.,  by  Gregory  IX.,  by  Paul  IV.,  by  Pius  V., 
in  bulls,  and  decretals,  and  letters  innumerable,  have  never, 
even  within  the  Church,  unanimously  been  considered  more 
than  "  assertions  "  of  a  theoretical  Divine  right,  they  cannot 
surely,  neither  they  nor  their  like,  be  now  made  binding 
either  "  defide  "  or  "  theologically."  True,  the.first  Galilean 
paragraph  which  authoritatively  embodies  that  view  has  been 
styled  "  heretical "  or  liter esi  proxima,  erronea,  &c.,  but  these 
censures  they  hold  are  of  a  private  nature,  not  ecclesiastically 
authoritative: — even  though  Innocent  XI.  and  Alexander 
VIII.  disapproved  this  Gallican  constitution,  and  Pius  VI. 
called  the  paragraphs  of  it  temer 'arias,  scandalosas,  injurias. 
All  this,  they  conclude,  does  not  affect  the  teaching.  There 
are  many  different  theories  on  the  subject,  and  no  decree 
of  the  Council  would  make  any  difference  in  the  interpreta- 
tion and  expounding  of  these  and  the  like  matters  on  the 
part  of  Ecclesiastical  Professors.  Infallibility  or  not,  ex 
cathedra  or  not,  Council  or  not,  those  things  must  and 
will  ever  remain  subjects  "  of  free  theological  opinion." 

This  is  the  voice  of  the  two  Professors  of  Kighteousness. 
We  were  bidden  to  hold  our  hands  until  we  had  heard  this 
protest.  We  have  heard  it,  and  we  think  it  more  damaging 
than  either  Fulda  or  Hyacinthe.  But  the  Roman  Press  did 
not  see  at  first,  and  partly  pretends  still  not  to  see,  what 
harm  there  is  in  the  Fulda  Manifesto. 

These  Germans  !  Whenever  they  issued  from  their  woods 
they  have  always  proved  dangerous  foes  to  Rome — from  the 
time  of  Varus  to  that  of  Luther.  And  now  they  advance 
upon  her,  daring  her  with  her  own  decretals : — those  same 


THE  (ECUMENICAL  COUNCIL.  241 

decretals   over  which,  as  Dante  has  it,  the  Pope  and  the 
'Cardinals  have  forgotten  Gospel  the  Nazarene  :— 

"  1'  Evangelic  e  i  Dottor  magni 
Son  derelitti,  e  solo  al  Dccretali 
Si  studia  se,  die  pare  a'  lor  vigagni. 
A  questo  intende  il  Papa  e  i  Cardinal! 
Non  vanno  i  lor  pensieri  a  Xazzarette 
Lk  dove  Gabbriello  aperse  1'  ali."  .  .  . 


OCTOBER  19,  1869. 

By  this  time  Pere  Hyacinthe  lies  under  the  Excommuni- 
catio  latte  sententise,  coupled  with  the  "  mark  of  infamy." 
Ten  days  the  General  of  the  Barefooted  Carmelites  gave  him 
to  retract,  "  to  raise  himself  generously,  and  to  repair  the 
great  scandal."  He  has  not  answered  the  solemn  summons. 
But,  as  the  Gaulois  informs  us,  M.  Charles  Loyson,  ci-devant 
Frere  Hyacinthe,  is  about  to  start  a  newspaper,  entitled  The 
^Christian,  Echo  of  Clerical  Democracy.  Another  account 
describes  him  as  having  departed  for  America. 

We  should,  we  confess,  have  liked  to  see  an  answer  from 
Hyacinthe  to  the  letter  of  the  General,  who  avers  that  he 
never  dreamt  of  prohibiting  Hyacinthe  from  preaching, 
either  at  Notre  Dame  or  any  other  church.  On  the  contrary, 
he  told  him  to  confine  himself  exclusively  to  the  pulpit. 
The  strictures  passed  upon  him  referred  to  his  speeches  at 
the  Peace  League  and  other  public  places.  He  writes : — 

"  You  must  know,  Reverend  Father,  that  I  have  never  forbidden  you 
to  preach,  that  I  have  never  given  you  any  order  or  imposed  on  you  any 
restrictions  with  regard  to  your  sermons.  ...  If  you  have  renounced  a 
reappearance  in  the  pulpit  of  Notre  Dame  it  is  of  your  own  free  will  that 
you  have  renounced  it,  and  not  in  virtue  of  any  measures  taken  by  me 
towards  you." 

Extremely  characteristic,  by  the  way,  is  the  manner  in 
which  the  Koman  press  treats  the  matter.  In  one  instance, 
it  is  "  the  fall  of  a  leaf  towards  the  autumn."  The  wind  of 
pride  had  dried  it  up,  the  frost  of  rebellion  had  chilled  it 
long  ago,  and  now  it  has  become  detached  from  the  living 

B 


242  FIVE  LETTERS  ON 

trunk,  and  has  fluttered  to  the  ground.  And  although  the 
master  of  the  vineyard  may  mourn  over  it,  he  cannot  save 
it.  It  must  be  trodden  under  foot  and  its  place  will  know 
it  no  more.  More  dried  leaves  have  fallen  in  their  time, 
and  have  gone  to  bury  themselves  in  the  mire.  There  was 
Carlo  Passaglia,  there  was  Cristoforo  Bonaviso,  and  Eusebio 
Kealli,  a  Lateran  canon ;  there  were  the  Liverani,  Bobone, 
Perfetti,  and  dozens  of  others  who  fell  away  during  the 
Italian  Kevolution;  there  were  the  many  Frenchmen  of 
great  and  little  note,  and  among  them  Kobert  de  Lamennais,. 
of  whom  Hyacinthe  "possesses  neither  the  talents,  nor,  as 
yet,  the  sins."  And  whether  these  rebels  be  dead  or  alive, 
their  end  has  been  miserable  beyond  words,  while  Home 
lives,  and  will  live,  and  the  Church  passes  on  from  genera- 
tion to  generation.  "  Is  Pius  IX.  less  great,  less  powerful, 
less  formidable  in  consequence  to  his  enemies?  No,  cer- 
tainly not.  All  the  harm  has  come  to  the  leaves  only." 

But  as  if  to  balance  these  proud  assertions,  another  "  in- 
spired "  organ  takes  the  other  line — ad  misericordiam.  The 
Kev.  Father  Hyacinthe  says  in  his  letter  that  he  intends  to 
appeal  to  another  Council  from  the  decrees  of  the  forth- 
coming one,  which,  he  has  reason  to  believe,  will  not  be 
"  free."  And  why,  asks  that  organ,  is  the  Council  not  to  be 
free  ?  "  Who  will  intimidate  it  or  bribe  it  ?  "  Pius  IX.,  old, 
feeble,  poor  Pius  IX.,  who,  so  far  from  having  to  give  any- 
thing to  his  Bishops,  has  to  rely  on  poor  Peter's  pence  which 
they  are  about  to  bring  him?"  As  to  these  poor  contri- 
butions, it  may  be  observed,  in  passing,  that  the  collections 
are  being  pushed  on  with  great  vigour  and  enthusiasm,  and 
that,  together  with  the  mites  expected  from  the  Bishops,  the 
trifle  of  from  four  to  five  millions  is  hopefully  and  con- 
fidently looked  for  at  Kome. 

Meanwhile,  M.  Loyson  is  not  quite  given  up  yet.  Santa 
Teresa  is  being  particularly  invoked  to  "  stop  him  on  the 
brink  of  the  precipice."  And  there  is  hope  even  for  the 
excommunicated.  If  they  are  beyond  the  pale,  if  no  one 
may  eat  with  them  or  speak  to  them,  they  may  become 
Popes  for  all  that.  There  was,  e.g.,  Formosus,  Bishop  of 


THE  (ECUMENICAL  COUNCIL.  243 

Porto,  who,  though  excommunicated  by  Pope  John  VII., 
followed  Stephen  V.  on  the  Papal  throne.  Shall  we  digress 
again  ?  He  recalls  an  interesting  episode  in  Church  history, 
one  which  bears  most  emphatically  to  our  minds  upon  the 
subject  of  Popes.  It  has  also  something  to  do  with  the 
"  Bulgarian  question." 

The  Bulgarians,  it  seems,  did  not  embrace  Christianity  till 
the  end  of  the  ninth  century,  although,  or  because,  they  had 
been  in  close  connexion  with  the  Byzantines  for  many  gene- 
rations. At  last  they  were  baptized.  But  their  king, 
Bogoris,  soon  found  himself,  in  spite  of  all  the  instructions 
of  his  Greek  missionaries,  even  of  the  Bishop  who  had 
baptized  him,  and  given  him  the  name  of  Michael,  in  a 
hopeless  state  of  puzzle  and  bewilderment.  Not  only  did 
his  subjects  object  to  the  new  faith  and  rise  in  rebellion 
against  both  it  and  him,  but  he  did  not  know  what  this  his 
new  faith  really  consisted  of.  The  many  dogmas  and  cere- 
monies preached  to  him  and  enforced  upon  him  by  the 
shoals  of  teachers  who  now  flocked  into  his  dominions,  each 
bearing  new,  contradictory,  and  even  heretical  tenets,  became 
too  much  for  him,  and  he  despatched  legates  to  the  two 
religious  authorities  of  the  time — the  Emperor  of  Germany 
and  the  Pope  of  Rome — to  ask  them  for  proper  teachers. 
But  long  before  the  clerical  envoys  of  the  Emperor  of 
Germany  had  reached  Bulgaria,  bearing  vessels  and  gar- 
ments and  books,  the  Koman  priests  had  already  taken 
possession  of  the  length  and  the  breadth  of  the  land.  Where- 
fore the  Germans  more  speedily  returned  than  they  had 
come.  One  of  those  special  legates  sent  by  the  Pope  was 
our  Formosus,  and  he  brought  with  him  106  chapters  of 
replies  to  the  questions  raised  by  these  new  believers.  Let 
us  extract  a  few. 

One  of  the  first  of  these  canons  treats  on  the  subject  of 
trousers.  The  Bulgarians  may  wear  them,  it  says,  both 
they  and  their  wives,  as  they  please.  Those  who  are  drunk 
may  not  go  to  the  communion,  but  they  who  have  bled  from 
their  noses  may.  A  woman  may  go  to  church  on  the  very 
day  of  her  delivery  if  she  likes.  The  books  taken  from  the 

E2 


244  FIVE  LETTERS  ON 

Saracens  are  to  be  destroyed.     A  husband  is  not  to  dismiss 
his  wife  excepta  causa  fornicationis.     It  is  not  lawful  to  rest 
from  labour  on  Saturday;   it   can   only  be   permitted   on 
Sunday.     Bathing  is  allowed  both  on  Wednesday,  Friday, 
and  Sunday.     The  horse's  tail  on  the  top  of  the  standard  is 
to  be   replaced  by  a  cross.      Criminals   may  be  punished 
except  when  they  are  clerics.     No  one  is  to  pray  for  relations 
who  have  died  in  a  state  of  unbelief.     The  three  patriarchal 
sees  founded  by  the  Apostles  are  Rome,  Alexandria,  and 
Antioch.     The  Bishops  of  Constantinople  and  of  Jerusalem, 
though  called  Patriarchs,  have  not  the  same  authority,  be- 
cause the   former   was   only   established  through   princely 
favour    (they   had    evidently   forgotten    the   Chalcedonian 
Council  at  Rome),  and  the  latter,  the  present  Jerusalem, 
is  no  longer  the  old  one,  which  has  been  totally  destroyed. 
The  law  books  which  the  legates  have  brought  they  have  to 
bring  back  again,  "  because  you  Bulgarians  would  not  inter- 
pret them  properly.     As  to  Christianity,  about  which  you 
want  to  know,  since,  as  you  say,  you  have  Christians  of  all 
kinds,  Greeks,  Armenians,  and  others,  among  you  who  teach 
different  things — the  Eoman  Church  has  always  been  ivithout 
any  stain  and  possessed  of  the  true  Christianity.     My  legates 
and  your  future  Bishop  will  always  tell  you  what  is  to  be 
done  in  dubious  cases — the  last  appeal  lies  with  the  Apo- 
stolic chair."   These  and  other  things — also  the  gifts  brought 
by  the  legates — pleased  King  Michael  so  much  that  he,  by 
way  of  symbol,  caught  hold  of  his  own  hair  and  vowed  him- 
self and  his  subjects  the  perpetual  servants  of  the  Koman 
Church.     He  then  sent  a  second  legation  to  Eome  begging 
that  our  Formosus,  who  had  displayed  great  talent  in  this 
mission,  might  be  made  Archbishop  of  Bulgaria.     But  they 
knew  better  at  Kome.     He  was  not  made  Archbishop  of 
Bulgaria,  under  the  plea  that  he  had  already  a  see  of  his 
own  and  must  not  change.    He  was  excommunicated  instead 
by  Pope  John  VII.,  on  account  of  these  Bulgarian  matters. 
But  another  Pope  came  to  the  throne — Marinus,  and  he  forth- 
with removed  his  uninfallible  predecessor's  excommunication. 
He  passed  away  and  another  Pope  also,  and  when  Stephen  V. 


THE  (ECUMENICAL  COUNCIL.  245 

died  Formosus  himself  ascended  the  Holy  Chair.  Five 
years  later  he  was  murdered,  and  was  followed  by  Boniface 
VI.,  who  sat  on  the  throne  of  St.  Peter  for  exactly  a  fort- 
night, and  made  room  again  for  Stephen  VI. 

But  we  have  not  done  with  Formosus  yet.  By  command 
of  the  new  Pope  his  corpse  was  taken  from  the  tomb,  dressed 
in  Pontifical  garments,  and  bodily  arraigned  before  a  special 
Council.  A  deacon  was  engaged  for  the  defence,  and  the 
charge  ran  "that  the  Pope  Formosus  had  from  criminal 
ambition  exchanged  his  episcopate  Porto  with  the  Chair  of 
Kome."  The  defence  was  considered  non-valid,  and  the 
dead  man  was  solemnly  condemned — the  tribunal  decreeing 
that  he  was  not  a  legitimate  Pope,  and  that  all  his  decrees 
as  well  as  all  his  ordinations  were  null  and  void.  He  was 
thereupon  deprived  of  his  robes,  the  three  fingers  of  his  right 
hand,  wherewith  the  Papal  blessing  is  given,  were  cut  off, 
and  the  mutilated  corpse  was  thrown  naked  into  the  Tiber. 
So  that  his  former  state  of  excommunication  would  have 
been  better  than  his  latter  state.  True,  Pope  Stephen  VI. 
himself  was  dragged  out  of  the  church,  thrown  into  a  dark 
prison,  and  strangled  the  very  next  year.  He  was  followed 
by  Pope  Bomanus,  who  was  murdered  four  months  after- 
wards, and  was  succeeded  by  Theodore,  "the  benevolent," 
who  was  murdered  twenty  days  afterwards,  and  was  followed 
by  Sergius  III.,  who  was  expelled,  and  was  followed  by  John 
IX.  He  held  three  Synods  in  two  years,  and  died  to  make 
room  for  Benedict  IV.,  who  was  murdered  three  years  later, 
and  was  succeeded  by  Leo  V.  Four  weeks  afterwards  he 
was  murdered  by  his  chaplain  Cristophorus,  who  became 
Pope,  and  who  six  months  later  was  thrown  into  prison  and 
killed  there,  and  Sergius  "  the  Antipope  "  ruled  in  his  stead. 
Here  follows  that  famous  epoch  called  the  Pornoeracy, 
coupled  with  the  names  of  Theodora  the  mother,  and  Ma- 
rozzia  and  Theodora  her  daughters:  even  Marozzia,  the 
mother  of  Pope  John  XI.,  about  whose  father  the  eccle- 
siastical writers  may  be  consulted  with  advantage.  Sergius, 
"  homo  vitiorum  omnium  serous  " — the  slave  of  all  the  vices — 
died  soon  under  suspicious  circumstances ;  but  he  received  a 


246  FIVE  LETTERS  ON 

noble  epitaph  in  the  Vatican,  on  which  he  was  styled  "  the 
good  shepherd  who  had  loved  all  his  flock  together,"  and 
visitors  were  informed  on  it  that  in  that  place  they  would 
behold  the  remains  "  both  of  the  *  pious  Sergius '  and  of 
Peter  the  Apostle."  Next  Anastasius  III.  came  to  the 
throne,  which  he  held  for  two  years,  and  after  him  Laudo, 
who  ruled  for  half  a  year  and  eleven  days.  And  after  him 
came  John  X.,  the  favourite  " nephew"  of  Theodora  the 
Elder.  When  he  had  been  thrown  into  prison  and  murdered 
Leo  VI.  was  chosen.  Six  months  afterwards  he  was  followed 
by  Stephen  VII.  Two  years  later  Marozzia's  son,  but  twenty- 
five  years  old,  became  Pope.  But  Marozzia's  other  son  im- 
prisoned both  his  mother  and  his  brother  the  Pope,  who 
died  in  the  third  year  of  his  imprisonment,  and  was  followed 
by  Leo  VII.,  who  died  two  years  afterwards. 

But  we  really  must  stop — only  that  the  history  of  the 
Papacy  is  so  very  fascinating,  replete  on  every  page  with 
matter  of  quite  thrilling  interest.  It  has  but  one  drawback. 
There  is  so  much  blood.  And  its  fumes  mingled  with  those 
of  many  ghastly  revels,  are  apt  to  make  the  brains  of  us 
poor  fools  of  "  civilization  and  progress "  to  reel  and  our 

hearts  to  grow  sick  within  us What  were  those  words 

the  Archbishop  of  Westminster  spoke  the  other  day  ?  "  I " 
— the  Pope — "  claim  to  be  the  Supreme  Judge  and  Director 
of  the  consciences  of  men ;  I  am  the  sole  last  Supreme  Judge 
of  what  is  right  and  wrong."  Shall  we  answer  this  ?  Let 
that  most  horrible  procession  of  murdering  and  murdered 
Popes  answer.  Let  him  go  into  his  own  chamber  and  answer 
himself.  ....  "Sole  last  Supreme  Judge?"  Did  it  ever 
strike  him  that  Gregory  the  Great  repudiated  with  horror 
what  he  called  the  "  blasphemous  and  criminal "  title  even 
of  "  oecumenical  patriarch  ?  " 

But  by  the  side  of  this  all  the  other  statements  made  by 
his  Eminence  pale.  Divorce,  secular  education,  and  religious 
doubts  are  the  foundations  of  civilization.  The  state  of  Kome 
is  the  proof  of  the  "Supernatural  Society,"  for  "piety, 
morality,  public  order,  true  civilization,  charity,  courtesy, 
justice,  and  goodwill."  So  be  it.  There  is  nothing  like  a 


THE  (ECUMENICAL  COUNCIL.  247 

positive  statement.  As  regards  divorce,  however,  would  it 
not  be  wise  if  Dr.  Manning,  a  theologian,  were  a  little  less 
scathing  and  scornful  about  it  ?  He  should  remember  that, 
after  all,  it  is  a  "  Divine  Institution,"  and  to  be  found  even 
in  the  Yulgate,  in  spite  of  its  many  corrections  and  emenda- 
tions of  the  text.  But  we  shall  not  discuss  these  matters 
with  the  Archbishop.  He  knows  best,  no  doubt,  what  he 
ought  to  say.  Also,  why  it  is  England,  of  all  countries  in 
the  world,  which  has  been  chosen  as  the  special  butt  at  this 
moment.  We  do  not  mean  the  wanton  and  absurd  insult 
expressly  thrown  in  the  face  of  London — bad  as  it  may  be — 
as  compared  to  Kome,  that  sink  of  sinks.  What  we  mean  is 
the  way  in  which  this  supreme  sovereignty  of  the  Pope 
is  flaunted  in  oiir  face  in  preference  to  all  other  nations. 
While  in  Germany,  for  instance,  the  official  Eoman  organs 
deny  as  loudly  as  ever  they  can  all  and  any  desire  on  the 
part  of  the  Pope  to  set  himself  over  worldly  powers,  we,  in 
England,  are  told  that  the  "  Prince  on  the  throne  and  the 
Legislature  that  makes  laws  for  kingdoms  " — both  Queen 
and  Parliament — stand  under  the  jurisdiction  of  this  "  Su- 
preme Judge."  In  order  to  prove  how  remote  a  like  thought 
be  from  the  Papal  mind,  the  distinct  disclaimer  of  Boniface 
VIII.  himself  is  adduced  by  other  official  Roman  writers  and 
speakers.  Nay,  they  go  so  far  as  to  quote  the  words  of 
Innocent  III.'s  Decretal  "  Novit,"  at  the  very  outset  of  which 
he  protests  that  "no  one  should  think  of  him  as  wishing 
to  diminish  or  disturb  the  jurisdiction  of  the  King  or  his 
power — he,  the  Pope,  who  cannot  sufficiently  exercise  his 
own  jurisdiction,  why  should  he  wish  to  usurp  another  ?  " — 
and  further, "  Cum  rex  superiorem  in  temporibus  minime  recog- 
noscat"  In  their  zeal  those  apologists  have,  it  is  true,  for- 
gotten what  else  is  to  be  found  in  Innocent's  works.  That  he 
is  God's  real  representative  in  all  things,  veri  Dei  vere 
Vicarius,  is  a  phrase  which  occurs  up  and  down  in  his  letters. 
And  in  his  epistle  to  the  Emperor  of  Constantinople  he 
proves  to  him  that  the  "  submitting  "  to  kings  or  governors 
which  St.  Peter  enjoins  upon  all  men  (i.  2,  13,  and  14)  does 
not  include  priests.  Furthermore,  he  tells  him,  "  Thou 


248  FIVE  LETTERS  ON 

shouldst  know  that  God  created  two  lights  in  the  firmament,, 
the  sun  and  the  moon — that  means,  he  created  two  dignities, 
the  Papal  authority  and  the  regal  power.  But  the  former, 
which  is  set  over  the  days,  i.e.,  the  spiritual  things,  is 
greater ;  that  over  the  things  of  flesh  is  smaller,  and  there  is 
the  same  difference  between  Popes  and  Kings  as  there  is 
between  the  sun  and  the  moon."  Need  we  say  that  the 
scholiasts  have  danced  a  mathematical  jig  on  this  passage  ? 
The  earth,  they  say,  is  seven  times  bigger  than  the  moon,, 
the  sun  is  eight  times  bigger  than  the  earth :  ergo  is  the 
Pontificate  47  (?)  times  bigger  than  royalty.  This  figure, 
however,  did  not  seem  quite  to  suffice,  and  Laurentius 
amends  it  by  another  arithmetical  process  into  exactly  1,744 
times,  by  which  the  Pontifical  power  surpasses  that  of  royalty. 
But  not  these  and  the  like  passages  are  chosen  by  the 
spokesmen  abroad.  We  are  alone,  it  seems,  to  be  favoured 
with  a  barefaced  and  exaggerated  revival  of  theories  which 
elsewhere  are  zealously  hushed  into  silence.  These  theories 
have  before  now  been  heard  in  this  land  of  ours,  and  much 
blood  and  many  tears  have  been  shed  through  them.  Are 
the  times  deemed  ripe  in  the  Vatican  ?  Let  these  counsellors 
beware.  Kome  has  had  to  rue  many  a  too  hasty  step,  too 
loud  a  cry,  too  defiant  a  challenge. 

Converts  are  not  always  desirable  acquisitions.  We  are 
told  that  the  Jews  compassed  sea  and  land  to  make  one 
proselyte.  We  are  also  told  that  they  likened  their  converts 
to  a  very  objectionable  and  irritating  bodily  disease,  and  that 
they  did  never  quite  trust  them,  even  to  the  twenty-fifth 
generation.  The  German  reformation  was  ripened,  if  not 
brought  about,  by  the  too  zealous  agitations  of  a  Koman 
convert.  Among  ourselves  we  have  those  who  have  been 
pronounced  "  thorns  in  the  side  of  their  new  mother."  But 
Archbishop  Manning,  we  deem,  has  by  this  oration,  sincerely 
meant  as  no  doubt  it  was,  struck  her  a  heavier  blow  than  she- 
has  received  from  either  Fulda  or  Munich,  Hyacinthe  or  the 
Cabinets  of  Europe.  Let  him  now  go  to  Kome,  that  abode 
of  saintliness,  and  move,  according  to  the  programme,  the 


THE  (ECUMENICAL  COUNCIL.  249' 

dogma  of  the  Infallibility.     Let  him  receive  his  red  hat — he 
has  well  deserved  it. 

Kegarding  that  first  reply  of  the  Munich  Faculty — not 
the  so-called  Protest  of  the  two  Professors — there  have  been 
some  very  bitter  words  in  the  Bavarian  Press.  It  appears 
that  there  has  been  a  little  shuffling.  The  official  organ,  in 
publishing  it,  did  not  publish  it  at  length.  It  preferred  to 
omit  the  very  important  introduction.  Questioned  on  the 
subject,  it  took  refuge  in  a  variety  of  replies — first,  that  the 
introduction  was  of  no  consequence  ;  next,  that  it  placed  the 
reply  in  a  totally  different  light,  and  was,  therefore,  irrele- 
vant, we  presume.  But  the  opponents  were  not  to  be 
appeased.  They  wanted  the  introduction  sans  phrase.  It, 
too,  has  now  been  published.  And  here  it  is : — 

"  In  replying  to  some  questions  put  before  them  by  the  Eoyal  Bavarian 
Government  regarding  the  forthcoming  Council,  the  undersigned  did  not 
think  they  were  doing  anything  which  ran  counter  to  the  good  traditions 
of  former  centuries.  It  is  well  known  that  the  legates  (oratores)  of  the 
Catholic  monarchs  and  States  took  a  vivid  interest  in  the  Council  of  Trent. 
These  legates  were  furnished  with  carefully-weighed  instructions  referring 
to  subjects  fixed  or  proposed  for  the  debates  of  the  Council,  and  not  rarely 
tried  on  their  part  to  advance  propositions  or  to  influence  the  course  of  the 
transactions  and  the  framing  of  the  final  decisions.  To  this  hour,  it  is 
true,  the  Catholic  Governments  have  not  been  invited  yet  to  take  part  in 
the  Council,  but  it  doubtless  lies  in  the  nature  of  the  given  circumstances 
that  they,  too,  should  endeavour  in  good  time  to  get  clear  on  the  point  as 
to  what  eventually  should  be  their  line  of  action  in  the  face  of  resolutions 
which,  not  merely  possibly,  but  scarcely  otherwise  than  necessarily,  must 
touch  upon  political  ground.  The  history  of  the  last  Council  of  Trent 
offers  manifold  proofs  that  precisely  those  monarchs  who  were  most  distin- 
guished by  religious  zeal  and  devotion  towards  the  Church  had  furnished 
their  legates  with  the  most  detailed  instructions  and  orders.  The  under- 
signed do  not  feel  called  upon  to  decide  whether  the  questions  put  before 
them  by  the  Government  are  the  only  possible  ones,  or  even  the  most 
prominent  ones,  that  might  be  put  under  the  given  circumstances  in  this 
exalted  matter.  But  in  answering  them,  as  they  do,  according  to  their 
best  knowledge  and  conscience,  they  are  penetrated  by  the  vivid  desire 
that  also  thereby  that  harmony  between  Church  and  State  may  be  fur- 
thered which,  at  least  as  long  and  in  as  far  as  there  exist  Catholic  Govern- 
ments, should  not  be  a  mere  ideal.  As  sons  of  the  Catholic  Church,  the 
undersigned  preserve  with  their  entire  heart  that  devotion  towards  the 
deliberating  and  deciding  authorities  of  the  future  Council  to  which  every 
disturbing  interference  is  absolutely  foreign,  and  only  because  and  inas- 


250  FIVE  LETTERS  ON 

much  as  they  would  wish  to  see  the  Church  secured  also  in  its  outer 
existence  against  the  distinctive  tendencies  of  impiety  do  they  wish  that 
in  every  respect  a  real  and  clear  understanding  on  the  limits  and  points  of 
contact  of  the  legal  State  with  the  order  and  task  of  the  Church  be  either 
preserved  or  the  way  be  paved  towards  it." 

What  is  most  important  and  most  formidable  about  this 
prooemium  is  the  fact  of  these  Professors  suggesting  more 
questions  to  be  put  and  to  be  answered.     They  evidently  like 
their  task.     But,  honest,  learned,  and  involved  as  they  are, 
we  think  they  have,   on   the  whole,  said   enough   for  the 
present.     Let  them  rest  on  their  laurels  for  a  while.     We 
know  their  views,  and  so  do  the  Bavarian  Government  and 
the  Vatican;   and  we  cannot  think  without  a   shudder  of 
reading,    translating,   and   inwardly   digesting   a   few   more 
columns  like   unto   the   former.     Meanwhile  the   Gallican 
Church  has  sounded  the  war-note  by  no  less  a  personage  than 
the  Bishop  of  Sura  (where  is  Sura?   we  have  heard  of  a 
Jewish  Academy  of  this  name ;  is  there  to  be  a  new  "prince- 
dom of  the  exile"?)  and  Dean  of  the  Theological  Faculty  of 
Paris,  Monseigneur  Maret.     He  has  written  two  volumes  On 
the  General  Council  and  the  Public  Peace,  which  he  submits 
to  the  Council.     More  are  to  follow,  but  these  may  suffice  as 
to  the  general  tendency.     In  a  circular  letter  to  his  brother 
Bishops  he  refers  them  to  the  preface  of  the  book,  written, 
he  says,  in  the  exercise  of  an  episcopal  right,  and  inspired  by 
love  to  the  Church  and  the  Holy  See.     He  has  dedicated 
these  two   volumes   to   the   Pope   himself.      In   the   letter 
addressed  to  His  Holiness  he  writes  first  to  excuse  himself 
that  he  cannot  himself  be  the  bearer  of  his  work,  inspired, 
he  repeats  also  to  him,  by  his  episcopal  duty.     "At  the 
moment  of  the  assembling  of  an  (Ecumenical  Council,"  he 
proceeds,  "  which  is  called  upon  to  perform  such  great  tasks, 
and  foreseeing,  as  I  do,  the  sinister  consequences  wherewith 
projects  might   be  fraught,   conceived  and  proclaimed  by 
venerable  men  who,  however,  do  not  seem  fully  aware  of  the 
perils  of  their  undertaking — it  appears  to  me  both  useful 
and  necessary  to  draw  the  picture  of  the  constitution  of  the 
Church  in  its   greatness   and  perfection,  and    in   that  un- 


THE  (ECUMENICAL  COUNCIL.  251 

changing  character  which  its  Divine  Founder  intended  to 
impart  to  it."  He  has  published  this  book,  he  says,  so  that 
all  may  read  it — the  Pope,  the  Bishops,  the  priests,  the 
people,  clerics  as  well  as  laymen.  "I  publish  them  before 
the  Council  so  that  they  all  may  have  time  to  read  them." 
Briefly,  the  whole  work,  from  beginning  to  end,  is  devoted  to 
one  object — to  the  most  fervent  and  unsparing  fight  against 
the  dogma  of  the  Papal  infallibility  and  to  the  defence  of 
Gallicanism.  "In  professing  all  the  respect  due  to  the 
decisions  and  bulls  of  Sixtus  IV.,  Alexander  VIII.,  Clement 
XL,  Pius  IV.,  we  adhere  to  doctrines  which  appear  to  us 
true." 

If  the  Gallican  constitution  is  called  an  arsenal,  these 
volumes  are  a  powder-magazine.  They  are  learned,  being 
the  matured  labour  of  many  years  ;  they  are  eloquent,  they 
are  daring.  They,  above  all  things,  mean  war — war  to  the 
knife.  And  there  is  a  peculiarly  French  note  of  fierce 
sadness  ringing  out  in  the  first  lines,  which  contrasts  very 
strikingly  with  both  the  scorn  and  the  satisfaction  of  our 
Westminster  Archbishop : — 

"  After  eighteen  centuries  of  Christianity,  what  spectacle  does  the  intel- 
lectual and  moral  world  offer?  .  .  .  The  Christian  religion  is  divided 
into  hostile  and  rival  communities.  In  the  midst  of  the  highest  culture, 
of  a  brilliant  civilization,  philosophy  shrinks  from  religion,  science  divorces 
itself  from  faith,  politics  cannot  direct  men  any  longer  towards  their 
higher  destinies,  the  noblest  aspirations  of  our  nature  remain  without  any 
fixed  object,  the  human  soul  is  floating  at  the  mercy  of  the  most  contra- 
dictory doctrines  and  tendencies." 

We  shall  have  to  return  to  this  book  again  and  again. 
The  Council  begins  to  bear  fruit  already:  such  as  has 
probably  not  been  foreseen.  There  will  be  a  greater  harvest 
still,  we  ween,  before  it  is  all  over.  And  all  this  time  those 
busy  men  of  the  Vatican  work,  work,  work.  And  this  is, 
.according  to  good  information,  their  present  procedure:— 
The  Pope,  assisted  by  the  leading  Congregation  of  Cardinals, 
works  out  the  sketch  of  every  single  canon ;  the  Congregation 
of  Cardinals  next  sends  it  to  the  Congregation  of  the  Six 
Committees;  the  Cardinal  who  presides  over  these  collects 


252  FIVE  LETTERS  ON 

the  votes,  together  with  the  motives,  and  returns  them  to  the 
Cardinals'  Congregation,  which  finally  redacts  the  wording  of 
the  canon  and  sends  it,  together  with  a  precis  of  the  votes,  to 
the  secret  press  of  the  Quirinal.  The  volume  thus  gradually 
forming  is  not  to  be  shown  to  the  Bishops  before  the  day  of 
the  Council,  so  that,  it  is  said,  not  only  the  whole  initiative 
will  remain  in  the  hands  of  the  Pope,  but  the  Bishops  will 
not  have  too  much  time  to  prepare  their  eventual  opposition. 
But  the  Vatican  has  by  this  time  become  aware  also  of  the 
clouds  that  are  gathering  around,  and  it  has  in  its  wisdom 
bethought  itself  of  a  counter-blast  to  all  those  jarring,  pro- 
fessional, episcopal,  and  journalistic  voices.  The  plan  of  an 
album  has  been  conceived.  Lists  are  circulating  among  the 
"  learned  and  educated "  in  which  "  any  one  who  occupies 
himself  with  profane  or  sacred  science"  shall  subscribe  in 
advance  a  formula  of  submission  to  the  decrees  of  the 
Council.  That  it  should  be  ours  to  tell  it !  Even  in  Kome, 
that  ideal  representative  of  the  "  supernatural,"  with  all  her 
ecclesiastico-academical  bodies  and  schools  and  colleges,  not 
more  than  fifteen  names  could,  as  the  Correspondence  Havas 
informs  us,  be  gathered  for  this  album.  So  that  the  intended 
monster-folios  will  have  to  be  reduced  to  a  pocket  edition, 
and  a  very  minute  one,  which  is  grievous. 

NOVEMBER  12,  1869. 

The  Eastern  proverb  says,  "  Woe  is  me  when  I  keep  silent ; 
woe  is  me  when  I  speak."  So  long  has  the  Vatican  been 
abused  for  apparently  taking  no  notice  of  all  the  ominous 
voices  and  tokens  around,  that  it  has  at  last  broken  its 
Trappist  vows.  That  "  Moniteur  of  the  Vatican,"  the  "  true 
echo  of  the  Holy  chair":  even  the  Civilta,  has  been  autho- 
rized to  give  a  piece  of  the  infallible  mind  to  the  world, 
before  the  official  hour  has  struck.  But  how  golden  was 
that  silence — how  erudite,  how  eloquent,  how  honest  com- 
pared with  that  speech !  TJhere  are  in  the  last  two  numbers 
of  that  organ  two  emanations — Encyclicals  in  undress,  as  it 
were.  One  treats  of  the  Bishops  of  Fulda,  another  of  the 


THE  (ECUMENICAL  COUNCIL.  253 

positions  of  the  Fathers  in  Council,  and,  by  way  of  bonne- 
louche,  even  the  long -forgotten  "Liberals  of  Bonn  and 
Coblentz"  are  passingly  mentioned.  To  them,  of  course, 
the  answer  was  brief  and  obvious  enough:  —  "Did  they 
imagine  the  Council  would  be  without  the  Holy  Ghost  ?"- 
And  nothing  more  need  be  said  on  that  score.  A  Council 
cannot  err ;  the  Holy  Ghost  knows  better  than  all  the  Pre- 
lates— than  even  those  of  Coblentz  and  Bonn.  Or  do  they 
doubt  it  ?  If  so :  Anathema ! — So  far,  so  good.  Next  comes 
Fulda.  Here  the  answer  was  a  little  more  difficult.  But 
Kome  is  up  to  the  occasion.  With  all  the  hammering  in 
St.  Peter's  and  debating  in  congregations  and  framing  of 
new  Latin  pronunciations  and  house-huntings  for  the  saintly 
guests  and  laying  in  of  stores — even  cigars,  if  rumour  speaks 
true — and  the  erection  of  monuments  for  events  which  have 
not  happened,  and  the  gathering  in  of  pence  and  collecting 
of  autographs,  and  all  that  feverish,  festive  bustle  that  keeps 
the  powers  that  be  at  work  day  and  night :  their  right  hand 
has  not  forgotten  its  cunning.  What  the  Civilta  is  made 
(officially)  to  read  out  of  that  formidable  Bishop's  manifesto 
is  simply — "  a  victorious  refutation  of  the  liberal  calumnies." 
This  Pastoral,  it  says,  will  clear  up  "  all  errors  that  may  still 
be  floating  in  the  public  mind  with  regard  to  the  Syllabus 
and  the  Council."  Do  not  these  Bishops  end  with  a  wish 
for  the  "  Unity  and  harmony  of  the  Church  ?"  And  what 
but  Liberalism  produces  division  and  schism  in  the  Church  ? 
Has  not  His  Holiness  for  this  reason  also  condemned  it  in 
the  80th  thesis  of  the  Syllabus  ?  Ergo,  do  the  Fulda  Bishops 
in  their  manifesto  show  themselves  good  and  true  sons  of  the 
Church  by  condemning  so  emphatically  what  the  Pope  has 
condemned,  viz. — Liberalism! — Q.  e.  d.  Is  there  anything 
in  and  out  of  the  Epistolte  Olscurorum  Virorum  to  be  com- 
pared to  this  reasoning  ?  We  know  it  not.  But  what  we  do 
-know  is  that  these  Bishops  will  give  their  own  explanation 
in  good  time — if  they  can  make  themselves  heard  in  Kome. 

We  think  it  was  that  delightful  nation  of  the  Lalenburger 
who  once  built  unto  themselves  a  splendid  Town-hall.  And 
when  it  was  quite  ready,  and  the  solemn  inaugural  procession 


254  FIVE  LETTEKS  ON 

was  forming,  it  struck  one  of  the  worthy  burghers  that  a 
trifle  had  been  forgotten  in  that  brave  erection — the  windows. 
Whereupon  they  were  advised  to  collect  as  much  sunlight  as 
they  could  and  carry  it  in  in  bags  ;  which  they  did.  Twice 
has  the  original  plan  of  the  Council-structure  in  St.  Peter's 
been  altered,  until  at  last  everything  was  most  satisfactorily 
settled — throne,  galleries,  benches,  curtains,  and  all,  down  to 
the  mosaics  behind  the  Bishops'  seats — when  of  a  sudden  it 
occurred  to  an  indiscreet  questioner  whether,  as  there  was 
to  be  some  speaking  in  the  Council,  people  would  be  able  to 
understand  what  the  speakers  said  ?  And,  lo !  it  was  tried, 
and  it  was  found  that  not  one  syllable  would  be  heard ;  so- 
that,  instead  of  the  Tower  of  Babel  which  was  expected, 
there  was  to  be  a  deaf  and  dumb  asylum.  And  now,  at  the 
twelfth  hour,  it  has  been  decided  to  save  appearances  and 
to  accommodate  the  Fathers  in  another  place.  Lest,  how- 
ever, the  enormous  outlay  might  be  supposed  to  be  wasted, 
these  same  Fathers  will  solemnly  be  marched  in  to  the 
original  structure  on  the  first  day,  and  forthwith  marched 
out  again. 

Will  they  say  much  in  that  other  place  ?  Or  rather,  will 
what  they  do  say  be  of  the  slightest  consequence?  Also 
on  this  question  —  a  very  burning  one  —  has  the  Vatican 
spoken  by  the  mouth  of  its  own  infallible  echo.  Not  directly, 
though, — there  might  be  rocks  ahead, — but  in  an  "  inspired'* 
letter  to  the  Avenir  National  And  thus  says  the  Civilta  :— 

"  What  is  the  Pope  in  relation  to  the  Episcopate  in  Council  assembled  ? 
As  the  successor  of  Peter,  he  is,  according  to  Scripture,  the  corner-stone 
of  the  Church,  the  possessor  of  the  keys  of  Heaven,  the  Shepherd  of  the 
flock  of  Christ.  According  to  the  Council  of  Lyons,  he  is  the  guide  of 
the  Universal  Church ;  according  to  that  of  Florence,  he  is  the  head,  the 
father,  the  master  of  all  Christianity.  .  .  .  These  are  the  relations  between 
the  Pope  and  the  Church,  whether  the  latter  be  considered  in  its  isolated 
and  special  groups  or  as  a  whole,  in  corpore  or  in  Council.  What,  then, 
tell  us  these  relations  between  Pope  and  Church  in  their  special  groups  or 
in  Council  ?  Supreme  authority  and  subjection — the  former  vested  in  the 
Pope,  the  latter  the  part  of  the  Assembly  of  the  Bishops.  .  .  .  Not  only 
have  the  Popes,  whenever  they  deemed  it  useful  and  proper,  fixed  the 
term  of  the  definitions,  but  they  therewith  combined  the  prohibition  to 
discuss  or  in  any  way  (menomamento)  to  alter  them !  .  .  ." 


THE  (ECUMENICAL  COUNCIL.  255 

This  is  clear  enough.  Professors  of  Munich,  Bishops  of 
Fulda,  Hyacinthe  in  America,  Maret  in  Paris,  Catholic  world, 
take  notice !  No  illusions,  no  compromise.  The  Pope  has 
to  command,  the  Bishops  "have  a  right"  to  obey — im- 
plicitly. They  may  perchance  be  allowed  to  hold  a  con- 
versation sotto  voce,  but  as  for  discussing  anything,  how 
dare  they ! 

We  like  this  communique.  It  reads  like  an  Encyclical; 
even  with  regard  to  its  appeal  to  history,  which  it  interprets 
as  it  does  the  Fulda  Manifesto  :  facts  being  of  the  slightest 
possible  consequence.  And  we  cannot  help  further  con- 
gratulating ourselves  that  leaders  or  communiques  in  "  Ephe- 
merides  "  should  begin  to  supersede  Bulls.  Here  is  a  con- 
cession to  that  progress  of  the  age  which  it  is  "  a  damnable 
error  to  suppose  that  the  Pope  could  ever  be  reconciled 
with."  However  fearful  and  wonderful  the  weapons  where- 
with these  saintly  journalists  fight,  we  prefer  it  greatly  to  the 
old  familiar  "  Excommunicamus  et  Anathematizamus." 

Or  have  they  forgotten  the  Goena  Domini  ?  Why,  indeed^ 
use  dead  and  rotten  argument  while  there  is  a  living  Bull 
at  hand  ?  That  question  of  the  authority  of  a  Council  in 
relation  to  the  Pope  has  been  settled  long,  long  ago : — 

"  In  the  name  of  Almighty  God,  the  Father,  and  the  Son,  and  the  Holy 
Ghost,  likewise  through  the  authority  of  the  Holy  Apostles  Peter  and 
Paul,  and  Our  Own,  do  we  excommunicate  and  anathematize  ....  all 
and  everyone,  of  whatever  state,  grade,  and  condition, — and  even  so  do  we 
lay  the  interdict  upon  all  such  universities,  colleges,  and  chapters  which, 
from  our  ordinances  or  mandates,  or  from  those  of  the  Roman  Pope  for 
the  time  being,  should  appeal  to  a  forthcoming  general  Council " 

Thus  the  second  paragraph  of  that  famous  Bull,  which 
used  to  be  read  aloud,  first  three  times,  then  once,  a  year 
(on  Maundy-Thursday  or  Coena  Domini)  by  the  Pope  in  the 
presence  of  all  the  Cardinals,  Archbishops,  and  Bishops  in 
pontifical  garments,  and  in  the  presence  of  the  vast  concourse 
of  people  who,  from  the  ends  of  the  earth,  had  flocked  to  Koine 
for  Apostolic  absolution  and  blessing.  After  the  reading, 
these  highest  dignitaries  of  the  Church  threw  their  burning 
tapers  to  the  ground,  trod  them  under  foot,  while  the  bells 


•256  FIVE  LETTERS  ON 

were  tolled  in  an  irregular  and  funereal  fashion — to  indicate 
that  by  this  excommunication  the  light  and  the  grace  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  were  extinguished  in  the  excommunicated,  and 
while  the  believers  were  called  to  church  by  the  regular 
and  clear  sounds  of  the  bells,  in  pulsations  ordinata,  the 
•cursed  ones  were  to  be  driven  out  and  dispersed  by  those 
vague  and  irregular  "  pulsations."  The  Bull  was  next  affixed 
each  time  to  the  doors  of  the  principal  churches  of  Eome, 
the  Basilica  of  Peter  and  the  Lateran  Church,  and  most 
horrible  were  its  consequences. 

It  was  well  worth  the  time  spent  upon  its  composition,  this 
" Bulla  Ccense"  this  famous  Index  of  the  "reserved  cases" — 
i.e.,  excommunications  for  crimes  which  only  the  Pope  of 
Koine  himself  could  remove.  The  very  first  of  these  cases 
dates  from  the  Council  of  Clermont  in  1130,  where  Inno- 
cent II.  reserved  to  himself  alone  the  right  of  absolving 
any  one  who  had  laid  violent  hands  on  a  priest  (Percussio 
Clerici).  And  by  small  degrees  these  cases  increased  in 
number,  until  they  reached  the  figure  of  about  110,  of  which 
20  are  embodied  in  this  Sulla  Ccense.  The  framing  of  this 
latter  document  took  only  about  300  years — from  Urban  V. 
to  Urban  VIII. ;  but  what  a  document  it  is,  and  how  inti- 
mately it  concerns  us !  We  gave  the  second  paragraph 
above ;  here  is  its  first : — 

"  We  Excommunicate  and  Anathematize,  ...  all  Hussites,  Wycliffites, 
Lutherans,  Zwinglians,  Calvinists,  (&c.),  as  well  as  all  and  every  heretic, 
of  whatsoever  name  or  sect,  as  well  as  those  who  receive,  protect,  and 
generally  defend  them,  as  well  as  such  who  knowingly  read,  keep,  print 
.  .  .  their  heretical  or  religious  writings,  ...  as  well  as  those  schismatics 
who  withdraw  themselves  from  the  obedience  of  the  Pope  for  the  time 
Toeing." 

Another  paragraph  treats  of  wreckers — an  occupation  to 
which,  it  seems,  not  only  Bishops  whose  sees  bordered  on  the 
shore  were  given,  but  the  privilege  of  which  was  regularly 
bestowed  upon  certain  monasteries.  When  this  amiable  and 
saintly  practice  was  abrogated,  a  special  exception  was  made 
with  regard  to  heretics  and  unbelievers,  who,  having  escaped 
the  fury  of  the  elements,  were  not  to  be  spared  therefore 


THE  OECUMENICAL  COUNCIL.  257 

.by  the  servants  of  God.  Another  paragraph  enacts  that  no 
one  should  be  prevented  from  going  to  Home.  That  means 
that  those  Bishops  who  had  hitherto  been  in  the  habit  of 
kidnapping,  imprisoning,  wounding,  ill-treating,  and  slaying 
such  abbots,  or  priests,  or  fellow  Bishops  who  set  out  to 
Kome  for  the  purpose  of  lodging  complaints  against  them 
should  do  so  no  more.  Thus,  e.g.,  a  wrathful  Bishop  of  Bath 
locked  his  dissatisfied  clergy  up  in  their  own  church,  and 
starved  them  into  peaceful  submission  and  the  giving  up  of 
their  travelling  plans.  The  Bishop  of  Waterford  seized  upon 
the  Bishop  of  Lismore  on  his  way  to  Kome,  threw  him  into 
prison  and  chains,  and,  "  having  well  beaten  him,"  took  pos- 
session of  his  bishopric,  even  as  did  Archbishop  Gaufrid 
of  York  with  his  malcontents,  who  were  going  to  tell  Ce- 
lestine  III.  And  while  Napoleon  III.,  that  good  son  of 
the  Church,  places  his  own  steamers,  free  of  charge,  at  the 
disposal  of  the  Bishops  Eomeward  bound,  the  Emperor 
Frederic  II.  had  sent  his  illegitimate  son  Enzius,  in  1241, 
into  the  Pisan  waters  to  attack  the  Prelates  going  to  the 
Council.  He  made,  indeed,  a  great  haul  of  legates  and 
Archbishops  and  Bishops  and  abbots  on  that  occasion,  and 
he  carried  them  all  in  chains  into  Apulia.  Philip  IV.,  with 
much  less  trouble,  simply  confiscated  the  goods  of  all  those 
Bishops  who  had  gone  to  Eome  in  obedience  to  the  call  of 
Boniface.  In  the  next  place  there  are  solemnly  cursed  those 
who  in  any  way  should  molest  ecclesiastics,  or  who  should 
appeal  from  Rome  to  the  worldly  Powers,  who  cite  clerics 
before  a  lay  tribunal,  who  usurp  clerical  property,  who  levy 
taxes  on  churches  or  convents,  and — finally — do  "  we  excom- 
municate and  anathematize  all  those  who,  by  themselves 
or  others,  directly  or  indirectly,  under  whatsoever  title  or 
pretext,  should  presume  to  invade  or  occupy  and  hold  the 
Holy  City,  the  kingdom  of  Sicily,  the  islands  of  Sardinia 
and  Corsica,  the  lands  this  side  the  Pharos,  the  Patrimony 
of  Peter  in  Tuscia,  the  Duchy  of  Spoleto,  the  Counties  Ve- 
naisin,  Sabina,  the  Marches  of  Ancona,  Avignon,"  and  a  vast 
variety  of  counties,  dukedoms,  provinces,  cities  in  and  out  of 
Italy  which,  alas,  have  for  many  a  long  day  since  been  so 


258  FIVE  LETTEKS  ON 

invaded,  occupied,  and  held.  It  has  indeed  had  strange 
fates,  this  pet  Bull,  fostered  by  successive  generations  of 
Popes.  There  was  mystery  about  it  from  its  very  birth. 
The  Patriarchs,  Archbishops,  and  Bishops  would  not  pub- 
licly proclaim  it,  some  of  the  later  Popes  would  not  even 
let  it  out  of  their  hands,  while  the  worldly  Powers  stamped 
it  out  by  common  consent.  Neither  the  Avisamenta  nor 
the  Centum  Gravamina  of  the  German  nation  at  the 
Council  of  Constance  even  make  mention  of  it.  Philip  II. 
sent  the  Papal  Nuncio,  who  came  to  proclaim  it,  out  of 
his  empire,  without  hesitation.  France,  Portugal,  and 
Germany  showed  their  contempt  for  it  equally,  and  when 
Clement  XIII.,  forgetting  that  it  was  the  latter  half  of  the 
18th  century,  excommunicated  Duke  Ferdinand  of  Parma 
on  the  ground  of  this  Bull,  the  days  of  Koman  supremacy 
were  counted.  France  simply  renewed  the  edict  issued  by 
its  Parliament  in  1580,  whereby  all  and  any  Bishops  or 
Archbishops  who  should  make  known  this  Bull  would  be 
tried  for  high  treason.  Portugal  promised  to  make  an 
example  of  anybody  who  should  say  a  word  in  favour  of  this 
Papal  emanation,  and  that  all  or  any  judge  who  should  as 
much  as  mention  it  as  a  legal  document  should  be  treated 
as  a  rebel  against  the  King's  person.  A  similar  fate  befell 
it  at  the  hands  of  Maria  Theresa  and  the  dukes  and  princes 
and  republics  of  Italy,  until  Clement  XIV.  wisely  abrogated 
the  public  reading  of  this  Bull  in  church  on  the  day  after 
which  it  was  named,  saying  that  "  it  was  no  longer  a  time 
for  Anathemas,  but  for  Grace."  Yet  it  has  never  been  for- 
mally revoked,  though  Joseph  II.  made  it  actually  disappear 
from  the  rituals,  suggesting  that  the  blank  leaf  should  bear 
the  words  "  Obedientia  melior  quam  victima" 

The  Council  of  Florence  and  the  Council  of  Lyons,  for- 
sooth !  Why  not  the  Council  of  Chalcedon,  too  ?  For  it 
is  but  the  feeble  echo  of  that  feeble  organ  of  German  Ultra- 
montanism,  the  Laacher-Stimmen,  which  is  reproduced  now, 
years  after  the  original,  by  the  learned  of  the  Vatican.  Why 
have  they  dropped  that  third  Council  there  quoted,  we 
wonder  ?  And  must  we  again  freshen  up  their  memory  on 


THE  (ECUMENICAL  COUNCIL.  259 

one  or  two  little  points  in  ecclesiastical  history  ?  Did  they 
ever  hear  of  the  Council  of  Constance  ?  It  was  there  that 
we  were  told  the  other  day,  a  propos  of  the  different  degrees 
of  curse  and  condemnation  attaching  to  opinions,  that  John 
Huss  was  so  leniently  treated.  Not  all  his  sayings  had  been 
accounted  "  heretical" — only  a  few.  He  certainly  was  burnt 
on  that  occasion,  but  that  was  only  for  a  few  things  he 
held,  not  all. 

That  Council  of  Constance  did  many  things.  Among 
others,  it  issued,  in  its  fifth  general  sitting,  as  "  Decrees  of 
the  whole  Synod,"  the  following:—"!.  That  this  Synod, 
properly  assembled  in  the  Holy  Ghost,  forming  a  General 
Council  of  the  Church  Militant,  derives  its  power  directly 
from  God,  and  everybody,  even  the  Pope,  is  obliged  to  submit 
to  it  in  that  which  appertains  to  the  Faith,  the  eradication  of 
schism,  and  the  reformation  of  'head  and  limbs'  (of  the 
Church,  scil.).  2.  Whosoever,  were  it  even  the  Pope,  per- 
sistently refuses  obedience  to  the  orders,  statutes,  and  decrees 
of  this  Holy  Synod,  and  every  other  legally  assembled 
General  Council,  with  regard  to  the  above  points  and  others 
related  to  it,  is  to  undergo  penance  and  to  be  punished 
accordingly,  even  if  other  (non-ecclesiastical)  means  should 
have  to  be  resorted  to." 

That  is  explicit — is  it  not  ?  More  so  than  either  Lyons 
or  Florence,  which  are  so  grandly  quoted  by  the  Vatican 
advocates  on  the  relation  between  Council  and  Pope,  and 
which  have  no  more  to  do  with  that  question  than  with  the 
man  in  the  moon.  But  those  Constance  prelates  were  more 
explicit  still.  They  first  forced  the  Pope  of  the  period, 
John  XXIII.,  formally  to  abdicate,  "  on  account  of  the  great 
scandal  caused  by  his  great  and  heavy  sins."  He  suggested 
two.  formulas  of  abdication,  fraught  with  insults  to  the  two 
anti-Popes  of  the  period,  Benedict  XIII.  and  Gregory  XII. 
But  these  formulas  were  rejected  by  the  Council,  and, 
finally,  he  not  merely  subscribed  to  another,  but  "swore 
and  vowed  solemnly  and  publicly  to  God  and  the  Church, 
and  this  Holy  Council,  to  restore  peace  unto  the  Church 
by  laying  down  the  Papal  dignity."  This  he  swore  on  the 

s  2 


260  FIVE  LETTEES  ON 

2nd  of  March.  On  the  20th  of  the  same  month  Frederick 
of  Austria  gave  a  tournament,  by  way  of  entertainment  to 
the  endless  number  of  people  who  had  flocked  to  Constance. 
The  clergy  alone,  with  their  servants,  amounted  to  18,000 
persons.  There  were  1700  "  Posaunner,  Pfeiffer,  Fl other," 
and  there  were,  says  honest  Dacher,  who  had  to  make  out 
the  lists,  "  mulieres  communes,  quas  reperi  in  clomibus,  et 
ultra  et  non  minus,  exceptis  aliis,  DCC,"  a  number  confirmed 
by  other  list-makers.  "  Offen  fahrend  Dirnen  ob  700,  heim- 
lich  Dirnen  und  Curtisanen  vast  viel,"  say  Eeichenthal  and 
Justinger.  And  while  they  were  all  rejoicing  at  the  tour- 
nament, ex-Pope  John  cancelled  his  resignation  by  abscond- 
ing, in  the  disguise  of  an  ostler,  to  Schaffhausen,  whence 
he  informed  the  Council  that  he  was  very  happy  where 
he  was,  "  free  and  in  fresh  air."  And  the  confusion  and 
the  strife  in  Church  and  Council  now  became  irreparable. 
No  less  than  seventy-two  charges  were  drawn  up  by  the 
Council  containing  the  crimes  of  which  John  had  been 
"notoriously"  guilty,  and  of  which  murder,  unchastity, 
simony,  and  theft  formed  principal  items.  Eighteen  of 
these  were  subsequently  struck  out,  "though  they  were 
crimes  well  attested  by  witnesses — in  order  to  save  the 
dignity  of  the  Church."  John  had,  in  the  interval,  been  made 
prisoner  by  the  Burggraf  of  Nuremberg,  and  at  Kadolfszell 
these  fifty-four  dread  charges  were  communicated  to  him 
by  legates  of  the  Council.  His  reply  was  "that  he  most 
deeply  repented  having  furtively  left  Constance.  Death 
would  have  been  better  for  him  than  this  flight.  He  would 
not  defend  himself.  He  submitted  entirely  to  the  decrees 
of  the  Synod,  as  he  had  already  previously  declared.  The 
Council  was  sacred  and  infallible  and  never  would  he  think 
of  contradicting  it."  And  on  the  twelfth  general  sitting  of 
the  Council,  held  in  the  Cathedral  of  Constance,  in  the 
presence  of  the  Emperor,  mass  was  sung  by  the  Patriarch 
of  Antioch,  and  was  followed  by  the  Litany,  with  the  verse, 
"  Now  is  the  judgment  of  this  world,  now  shall  the  Prince 
of  this  world  be  cast  out "  (John  xii.  31) ;  at  the  end  of 
which  Pope  John  XXIII,  was  formally  deposed  in  terms 


THE  (ECUMENICAL  COUNCIL.  261 

•of  most  scornful  contempt.  All  the  charges  against  him 
were  solemnly  and  briefly  reiterated.  He  was  condemned 
to  be  kept  prisoner  and  to  await  further  punishment.  And 
with  him  were  solemnly  deposed  Angelo  Corrario  and  Peter 
da  Luna — whilom  Benedict  XIII.  and  Gregory  XII. — the 
two  other  infallible  contemporary  Popes ;  the  one  in  Spain, 
the  other  in  France.  John's  Papal  Seal,  or  Bulla,  having 
been  publicly  broken  to  pieces,  and  his  Papal  arms  having 
been  publicly  and  solemnly  torn  to  pieces,  the  meeting  ad- 
journed, or  rather  service  was  at  an  end.  When  John  was 
informed  of  it  all  he  merely  observed  that  they  were  per- 
fectly right,  and  that  he  wished  he  had  never  been  Pope. 
How  he  died,  having  bought  his  liberty  for  30,000  florins, 
and  having  again  been  made  Cardinal-Bishop  of  Tusculum 
by  his  successor,  Martin  V.,  is  related  in  a  very  edifying 
manner  in  Church  history.  Indeed,  he  had  but  a  narrow 
-escape  from  being  canonized.  He  lies  buried  in  the  famous 
Baptistery  near  the  Cathedral  of  Florence. 

One  characteristic  episode  at  the  end  of  this  wonderful 
•Council  must  not  be  forgotten.  The  Emperor  Sigismund, 
who  played  a  very  prominent  part  at  it,  had  lived  high  at 
Constance,  both  he  and  his  suite.  But,  as  usual,  he  had  no 
money.  Whereupon  the  townspeople,  his  creditors,  as  he 
was  about  to  leave,  seized  upon  his  dinner  service,  He 
however,  equal  to  the  occasion,  addressed  them  in  a  very 
touching  speech,  exhorting  them  not  to  keep  his  plate, 
but  rather  certain  beautifully  worked  coverlets  and  cushions, 
which  he  would  take  out  of  pawn  without  delay.  They  were 
much  moved  by  this  speech  and  kept  the  coverlets.  But 
they  had  overlooked  the  little  fact  that  these  had  the  Im- 
perial arms  woven  into  them  and  could  not  in  any  way  be 
sold,  "which  impoverished  many  of  them  of  Constance  to 
a  piteous  degree,"  says  the  chronicler. 

The  Vatican  prelates  do  not  refer  to  the  Council  of  Con- 
stance, which  is  to  the  purpose.  Nor  do  they  refer  to  that 
of  Basle,  held  under  the  very  next  Pope,  Eugenius  IV.  For, 
finding  the  prelates  assembled  too  much  imbued  with  the 
spirit  of  Constance,  which  is  equally  pertinent,  this  Pope 


262  FIVE  LETTERS  ON 

closed  the  Council  for  a  year  and  a  half,  to  be  reopened 
at  Bologna.  But  the  Council  peremptorily  refused  to  be 
closed.  At  Basle  it  was  and  at  Basle  it  would  remain,  the 
Pope  was  told,  until  it  had  done  its  business,  which  consisted 
chiefly  in  "  the  amelioration  of  morals  in  the  Church  and 
the  restoration  of  peace,"  and  by  way  of  a  further  hint  it 
confirmed  solemnly  the  decree  of  Constance  whereby  every 
person,  especially  the  Pope,  has  to  submit  to  the  authority 
of  the  Council.  They  also  begged  his  Holiness  to  favour 
the  assembly  with  his  sublime  presence  or  his  representa- 
tives, "  else  they  would  feel  compelled  to  judge  him  according 
to  the  laws  of  the  Church."  The  Pope,  without  delay, 
graciously  acceded  to  their  humble  wishes ;  which,  however, 
did  not  prevent  the  Council,  when  he  subsequently  played 
them  false,  from  excommunicating  his  Holiness. 

We  repeat  it :  neither  Lyons  nor  Florence,  so  glibly  quoted 
by  these  saintly  savans  in  support  of  their  pet  doctrine  of  the 
absolute  power  of  the  Popes  over  the  Councils,  ever  touched 
that  question.  The  supremacy  of  Borne,  in  the  matter  of 
rank,  was  discussed  there,  and  in  relation,  not  to  prelates  in 
or  out  of  Council,  but  to  the  Greek  Church.  And  we  know 
how  long  the  union  arrived  at  on  these  two  occasions  lasted 
— that  one  night's  gourd.  If  the  Council  of  Lyons  had 
established  this  same  union  in  1274,  it  was  exactly  in  1282 
— eight  years  afterwards — that  the  Greek  churches  were 
"  plentifully  sprinkled  with  holy  water  to  purify  them  from 
the  taint  of  that  union."  And  all  its  previous  advocates 
and  wellwishers,  both  clerics  and  laymen,  were  laid  under 
penances,  and  the  Greek  Emperor,  who  had  lent  his  coun- 
tenance to  it,  was  not  even  allowed  a  decent  burial  by  his 
own  son.  Thus  much  for  Lyons  and  its  achievements.  Next 
comes  Ferrara-Florence,  when  the  Greek  Emperor,  even  at 
the  temporary  price  of  the  Filioque,  wished  the  West  to 
relieve  him  from  the  Grand  Turk,  and  when  the  Pope  on 
one  side  and  the  Council  on  the  other  tried  to  outbid  each 
other  at  Constantinople,  even  as  two  rival  Cheap  Jacks.  One 
of  the  principal  sources  for  this  Council  is,  indeed,  formed 
on  a  contemporary  work  called  A  Truthful  History  of  an 


THE  (ECUMENICAL  COJJNCIL.  263 

Unjust  Council)  by  Syropulos,  himself  a  member  of  that 
Council.  Very  amusing  are  the  preliminaries  to  it — how 
the  Basle  prelates  and  the  Pope  sent  rival  galleys  for  the 
Greeks,  and  how  the  two  nearly  came  to  blows  in  the  Bos- 
phorus ;  how  these  Greeks  were  much  puzzled  as  to  which 
was  the  proper  firm — Basle  or  Home ;  and  how  the  Sultan 
advised  the  Emperor  Manuel  (Palaeologus)  rather  to  form  an 
alliance  with  himself,  against  whom  he  sought  the  assistance 
of  these  Latin  rivals  ;  what  wranglings  there  were  when  the 
assembly  had  been  opened  at  last  even  on  that  vital  question 
where  the  rival  chairs  should  stand  ;  how  the  Pope  contrived 
to  have  a  bigger  and  a  more  costly  throne  than  either  the 
Patriarch  or  the  Emperor — which  made  them  both  say  bitter 
things  about  the  worldly  vanity  of  Home ;  how,  further,  the 
rations  of  these  Greeks  were  stopped  the  instant  they 
proved  unmanageable,  and  were  increased  whenever  they 
behaved  properly : — all  this  is  very  instructive  reading,  and 
it  makes  one's  heart  ache  in  these  days  to  read  that  the  Pope 
allowed  His  Majesty  during  his  attendance  at  the  Council 
no  less  than  thirty  florins  a  month,  while  the  Patriarch 
received  twenty-five,  the  "Despot"  twenty,  the  " officers" 
four,  and  the  servants  three  florins  a-piece.  No  less 
instructive  are  the  discussions  of  this  Ferrara -Florence 
Council  themselves.  The  third  point  on  the  list — Purgatory 
—being  chosen  first,  great  and  hot  disputes  arose,  in  which 
Judas  Maccabaeus,  and  St.  Paul,  and  Lazarus,  and  Basil  the 
Great,  and  Gregory  of  Nyssa  and  John  Damascene,  and 
Peter,  and  Abraham's  bosom  were  freely  handled  by  both 
parties ;  and  when,  in  the  course  of  the  debate,  the  question 
was  put  by  a  Latin  prelate,  What  was  the  nature  of  hell  fire  ? 
his  Greek  opponent  glibly  answered  that  the  eminent  Father 
who  had  put  the  question  would,  he  was  sure,  in  good  time 
find  out  the  answer  by  personal  experience.  No  more  could 
they  agree  about  the  state  of  the  souls  of  the  saints,  or  any 
other  similar  topic,  as  long  as  they  were  at  Ferrara.  But 
when  they  had  received  two  florins  extra  pay  (and  their 
four  months'  arrear  besides)  for  their  journey  from  Ferrara 
to  Florence,  whither  the  Council  was  removed  in  1439, 


264    FIVE  LETTERS  ON  THE  (ECUMENICAL  COUNCIL. 

things  went  on  more  smoothly — until  that  second  union, 
came  to  pass,  which  was,  if  possible,  of  even  less  duration 
than  the  first.  The  first  cry  of  the  Greek  Bishops  when 
they  touched  their  native  shore  was,  "We  have  sold  our 
faith;  we  have  exchanged  orthodoxy  for  heterodoxy.  May 
our  hands  which  signed  the  unjust  decree  be  cut  off !  May 
our  tongues  which  have  agreed  with  the  Latins  be  plucked 
out!"  And  the  people  shunned  them,  and  their  clerical 
brethren  would  not  even  officiate  with  them.  Nor  was  the 
union  itself  proclaimed  in  Constantinople,  and  before  many 
years  had  passed  it  was  a  thing  of  naught.  A  Church 
Council  assembled  in  Santa  Sophia  in  1450,  which  solemnly 
and  unconditionally  revoked,  rejected,  and  annulled  for  ever 
the  decree  of  the  Council  of  Florence  "  as  contrary  to  the 
Faith." 

Such  is  a  sample  of  the  arguments  now  in  preparation 
at  the  Vatican.  As  regards  especially  this  Greek  question 
and  its  present  aspect,  our  readers  may  remember  what  we 
told  them  in  our  first  paper  about  the  reception  of  the  Papal 
Legates  by  the  Patriarchs.  They  may  find  further  details 
as  to  the  contemporary  Greek  opinions  in  a  learned  and 
lucid  paper  in  the  current  Edinburgh  Eeview. 

Two  more  regal  utterances  have  come  to  hand  since  we 
last  wrote.  Both  Prim  and  Victor  Emmanuel  have  officially 
declared  that  they  will  not  allow  the  Council's  eventual 
decrees  to  interfere  in  any  way  with  the  laws  of  their  lands. 
And  there  are  dark  rumours  afloat  regarding  the  occupation 
question.  What  if  Napoleon  III.,  in  order  to  give  the 
Vatican  absolute  freedom  of  deliberation,  should  withdraw 
his  troops  just  for  the  time  being  ?  There  is  something  fas- 
cinating in  the  picture  of  what  would  happen.  If  Napoleon 
had  any  humour  left  in  him,  here  is,  indeed,  an  occasion. 
However,  come  what  may,  there  is  one  piece  of  comfort  left. 
Isabella,  late  of  Spain,  has  promised  to  be  present  at  the 
(Ecumenical  Council.  Who  can  say  that  there  is  no  balm 
in  Gilead  ? 


(    265    ) 


XII. 

APOSTOLKLE    SEDIS.1 


"  Apostolicae  Sedis  Moderationi — "  it  has  befitted  the  modera- 
tion of  the  Apostolic  See  to  issue,  in  accordance  "  with  the 
change  of  times  and  things,"  a  new  edition  of  Excommuni- 
cations, Suspensions,  and  Interdicts.  —  Thus,  briefly,  the 
preamble  to  the  notorious  "  Constitution  "  promulgated  by 
Pius  IX.  at  the  beginning  of  the  present  Council. 

We  do  not  intend  to  consider  the  merits  of  that  document 
either  from  the  philosopher's  or  the  antiquary's  point  of 
view.  Neither  shall  we  enter  upon  its  single  clauses,  armed 
with  the  Bible  and  the  Fathers,  theologically.  We  only 
offer  a  few  stray  data  towards  the  better  understanding  of 
some  of  its  details.  If  there  be  a  moral  in  them,  it  shall  be 
the  readers',  not  ours,  to  point  it. 

Our  document  contains  six  principal  divisions.  Four  are 
devoted  to  Excommunications  exclusively.  Of  them  we 
have  a  sum  total  of  thirty-six.  Twelve  of  these,  again,  are 
•"  especially  reserved "  to  the  Pope,  while  seventeen  are 
merely  "  reserved  "  to  him.  Three  are  left  to  the  bishops, 
or  "  ordinaries,"  and  the  final  four  are  "  reserved  to  nobody." 
The  fifth  general  division  contains  seven  cases  of  Suspension 
reserved  to  the  Pope,  and  the  whole  decree  winds  up  with 
two  "  reserved  "  Interdicts.  Thus  the  sum  total  amounts  to 
forty-five.  All  these  cases  are  Latse  Senteniiw,  which  means 
that  such  Excommunication,  Suspension,  or  Interdict  follows 


1  This  article  appeared  in  '  Macmillan's  Magazine,'  February,  1870. 
He-printed  by  permission. 


266  APOSTOLIOE  SEDIS. 

the  respective  transgression  without  any  further  process — 
sentence  being,  as  it  were,  already  pronounced:  while  in 
what  is  styled  Ferendse  Sententiae  a  special  investigation  and 
verdict  are  requisite.  The  term,  like  many  others  used  in 
the  Church,  belongs  to  classical  Kome.  In  that  ancient 
Commonwealth  it  meant  to  give  one's  vote  or  judgment, 
or  rather,  to  carry  (ferre)  that  vote,  in  the  shape  of  a 
little  waxed  tablet,  inscribed  with  certain  initials  (J.-bsolvor 
(7-ondemno,  &c.),  to  the  Cista  (not  sitella)  or  urn.  Voting 
in  Council,  which  was  done  viva  voce,  was,  therefore,  mostly 
called  sententiam  dicere,  to  speak  one's  opinion. 

The  first  and  principal  division  consists  of  the  old  Bulla 
Ccenge,  with  certain  alterations  to  be  mentioned  further  on. 
This  "  Lord's  Supper  Bull "  derives  its  name  from  the  fact 
that  certain  anathemas  which  it  embodies  were  promulgated 
by  the  Popes — down  to  exactly  one  hundred  years  ago — 
first  three  times  a  year ;  finally,  only  once.  The  day 
specially  fixed  upon  was  Maundy-Thursday,  as  the  day  of 
grace  when  Christ  after  supper  had  prayed  for  the  unity 
and  concord  of  the  Church.  It  was  on  that  day,  also,  that 
Paschal  II.,  in  1102,  excommunicated  Henry  IV.  of  Germany 
as  hsereticorum  eaput,  and  Gregory  IX.  did  the  same  to  the 
Emperor  Frederick  II.  in  1227 :  somewhat  to  their  own 
later  discomfiture.  And  on  that  day,  year  by  year,  it  was 
the  Pope's  privilege,  immediately  after  he  had  pronounced 
the  apostolic  benediction  over  the  countless  multitudes,  to 
utter  as  many  curses  as  the  Bull,  which  always  moved  with 
the  times,  contained  during  his  pontificate.  It  was  the  office 
of  the  cardinals,  archbishops,  and  bishops  who  surrounded 
him,  dressed  in  their  pontificals,  to  throw,  when  the  last 
word  had  been  said,  the  burning  tapers  to  the  ground  and  to 
tread  them  under  foot.  The  bells,  meanwhile,  were  set  in 
motion,  but  in  a  peculiar  fashion,  so  as  to  make  their  tolling 
a  thing  of  great  horror.  They  were  rung  "  inordinately," 
and  " in  detestationem"  viz.  of  those  who  had  been  cursed. 
Finally,  the  decree  was  nailed  to  the  doors  of  the  Basilica 
of  St.  Peter  and  the  Church  of  the  Lateran.  Those  who  fell 


APOSTOLIC^  SEDIS.  267 

under  its  provisions  were  forbidden  to  participate  in  all  or 
any  sacrament  and  to  enter  a  church.  No  one  was  allowed 
"  to  pray  with  them  or  to  speak  to  them,  to  eat  with  them 
or  to  drink  with  them,  to  hold  communion  with  them  in 
council,  to  kiss  them  or  to  greet  them.  They  are  not  to  be 
buried,  and  no  bell  is  to  be  tolled  where  they  have  lived.'* 
And  all  this  was  carried  out  in  very  bitter  earnest. 

The  Bulla  Ccenas,  in  its  latest  shape,  which  is  due  to- 
Urban  VIII.,  embodies  twenty  of  those  cases  in  which  the 
Pope  alone,  to  the  exclusion  of  every  mortal,  can  absolve, 
and  which,  in  this  sense,  are  "  reserved "  to  him.  This,  so 
far  from  being  at  first  considered  a  hardship,  was  pressed 
upon  the  Papal  see  by  the  Clergy  itself.  The  very  first 
authenticated  "  reserved  case  "  established  at  the  Council  of 
Clermont  in  1130,  was,  as  it  were,  "  an  Act  for  the  better 
protection  of  ecclesiastical  persons,"  and  probably  owes  its 
origin  to  England.  The  English  law  of  the  period  did  not,, 
it  seems,  take  sufficient  care  of  the  ecclesiastics  in  the  realm, 
and  loud  and  incessant  were  their  cries  against  the  violence 
they  had  to  endure  "  at  the  hands  of  robbers  and  evil-doers, 
who  do  not  sufficiently  respect  the  Church  of  God  and  His 
anointed."  And  when  Innocent  II.,  after  the  death  of 
Honorius  II.,  had  been  furtively  elected  Pope  by  a  mino- 
rity of  sixteen  or  seventeen  cardinals — an  Antipope,  Pier 
Leone,  the  favourite  of  Home,  being  proclaimed  as  Anaclete 
II.  by  a  majority  of  thirty  cardinals  the  very  next  day — 
and  had  been  confirmed  by  St.  Bernard  amid  general  ac- 
clamation, one  of  his  first  acts  at  that  Council  of  Clermont 
was  the  canon  called  Percussio  clerici.  The  anathema,  to  be 
recalled  only  by  himself,  was  pronounced  upon  any  one  who 
should  lay  violent  hands  upon  any  clerical  person  or  monk. 
The  offence,  however,  cannot  have  been  of  very  long  stand- 
ing. The  preamble  states  that  "  new  medicaments  must  be 
applied  to  new  vices."  The  anathema  was  renewed  in  the 
following  year  at  the  Council  of  Kheims,  in  1134  at  that  of 
Pisa,  and  in  1139  at  that  of  the  Lateran  ;  while  at  a  synod 
held  in  London  in  1138  (at  which  clerics  were  also  forbidden 


268  APOSTOLICJE  SEDIS. 

to  carry  on  the  trade  of  usurers),  and  at  another  held  either 
at  Westminster  or  at  Winchester  in  1143,  this  edict  was,  as 
'*  necessary  for  the  time,"  especially  and  solemnly  promul- 
gated for  domestic  use.  At  the  latter  synod  the  Fathers  of 
their  own  accord  added  another  crime  as  "  reserved  "  for  the 
Pope,  viz.  that  of  breaking  into  churches. 

The  principal  force  of  this  "  Reservation  "  lay  in  the  fact 
that  the  culprit  was  compelled  to  make  a  journey  to  Rome, 
the  abode  of  him  who  alone  could  "loose"  him.  Thus 
Innocent  III.  writes  to  the  Bishop  of  Montreale, — "  For 
greater  security  and  higher  reverence  has  the  Apostolic  See 
reserved  to  itself  alone  the  right  of  absolution,  in  order  that 
those  whom  neither  the  fear  of  God  nor  the  clerical  holiness 
>(religio)  keep  in  check  should  be  restrained  at  least  by  the 
labour  and  difficulty  of  the  road," — an  argument  which  may 
have  lost  some  of  its  force  since  the  twelfth  century. 

Ere  we  proceed,  however,  it  behoves  us  to  say  a  word 
about  the  whole  theory  of  the  "Reservation."  Theoretically, 
every  ordained  priest  has  the  power  of  absolving.  It  is 
.given  to  him,  during  the  imposition  of  hands,  by  the  Holy 
Ghost.  But  with  this  potestas  ordinis,  it  is  held  by  some,  is 
not  also  combined  the  potestas  jurisdictionis,  or  power  of 
jurisdiction,  both  of  which  are  requisite  for  absolving.  This 
second  and  more  important  power  is  inherent  in  the  Church, 
or  rather  the  Episcopate,  and  must  be  given  specially. 
Bishops,  therefore,  may  impart  it  to  their  subordinate 
priests  or  withhold  it  from  them,  as  they  see  fit.  The 
Council  of  Trent  confirmed  ancient  rules  embodying  this 
view,  by  declaring  the  absolution  pronounced  by  a  priest 
over  any  one  not  subject  to  his  ordinary  or  delegated  juris- 
diction, null  and  void.  The  Pope,  as  summit  and  crown  of 
the  Church,  and  as  "  holder  of  the  keys,"  stands  also  above 
the  Episcopate,  and  may  therefore  reserve  to  himself  all  and 
every  sin,  to  the  exclusion  even  of  the  bishops.  He  is  the 
•Judex  ordinarius,  the  Pastor  pastor um,  called  in  plenitudinem 
potestatis,  and  his  excommunication  may  be  removed  by  none 
but  himself,  or  his  special  locum  tenens  or  delegate.  Such  is 


APOSTOLIO^E  SEDIS.  269 

one  ecclesiastical  theory.  But  there  is  another,  backed  by 
other  ecclesiastical  authorities.  It  is  this:  that  the  Pope 
usurps  that  right,  of  which  he  also  has  not  made  use  during- 
the  first  Christian  centuries,  which  alone  are  "  normal,"  and 
the  privileges  of  which  are  u  ancient  and  divine ;"  whilst 
those  of  a  later  date,  like  the  Reservation,  are  due  in  a  great 
measure  to  the  Isidorian  Decretals,  which  are  condemned  as 
forgeries  by  the  Church  itself.  Such  rights  are  but  "acci- 
dental and  human,"  and  therefore  of  no  account.  As  long 
as  the  Pope  does  not  abuse  them,  they  may  be  left  to  him ; 
if  he  does,  they  must  be  taken  from  him,  even  against  his 
will.  The  orthodox  reply  to  this  is,  that  Gregory  the  Great 
and  Alexander  II.  had  de  facto  had  special  cases  brought 
before  them,  and  that  these  constitute  an  apt  and  proper 
precedent  for  the  early  centuries.  It  is  not  generally  em- 
phasized, we  think,  that  in  both  cases  it  was  simply  the 
Papal  judgment  invoked  and  given  against  a  bishop  and  an 
archbishop  respectively.  Be  this,  however,  as  it  may,  prac- 
tically the  bishops  often  and  early  enough  resorted  of  their 
own  free  accord  to  the  punishment  of  a  peregrination  to 
Kome  as  an  apt  way  of  getting  a  troublesome  sinner  out  of 
the  country  for  some  time — with  the  chance  of  his  never 
returning  again.  On  the  other  hand,  the  good  people  of 
Kome  did  not  object  to  the  often  noble  penitents,  who  spent 
their  money  whilst  they  performed  their  penance.  Thus 
went  Eomewards  King  Eobert  of  France,  and  with  him  went 
the  bishops  who  had  sanctioned  his  incestuous  marriage ; 
thus  Guarnerius,  the  criminal  Bishop  of  Strasburg,  "fasting 
with  much  fatigue.'"  Eemedius  of  Lincoln  sent  a  priest 
guilty  of  murder  to  Gregory  VII. ;  Henry  IV.  of  Germany 
stood  at  Canossa ;  and  King  Philip  of  France  was  absolved 
from  adultery  by  Urban  II.,  at  Rome.  Also  did  Archbishop 
Laurentius  of  Dublin,  among  others,  consign  no  less  than 
one  hundred  and  fifty  "  licentious  Irish  priests  "  to  the  Holy 
Father  in  1197,  and  the  Bishop  of  Groswardein  himself  was 
ordered  to  go  to  Eome,  to  get  absolution — if  he  could — for  a 
certain  sin  of  which  he  had  been  notoriously  and  repeatedly- 
guilty. 


270  APOSTOLIC^  SEDIS. 

The  first  reserved  case  having  been  established,  it  was 
found  expedient  to  make  exceptions,  partly  in  favour  of  the 
clergy,  but  partly  also  in  favour  of  those  laymen  who  should 
" punish"  clerics  "caught  in  flagranti  with  their  wives, 
mothers,  daughters,  or  sisters,"  or  who  should  defend  them- 
selves against  "unjust  violence"  on  the  part  of  a  cleric. 
Occasionally  also  the  Pope  waived  his  right,  or  rather  trans- 
ferred it  to  cardinal  legates  or  special  bishops.  Thus  the 
Bishop  of  Genoa  was  permitted  by  Alexander  III.  to  absolve 
a  certain  canon  who  had  beaten  a  sub-dean.  Another  step 
in  the  other  direction,  however,  was  to  make  this  ban  valid 
without  special  excommunication,  which  at  first  had  been 
indispensable.  It  was  now  considered  pronounced  ipso  facto, 
or  latse  sententids  ;  terms  which  are  indeed  not  used  in  the 
matter  during  the  first  stages. 

Out  of  this  single  case  there  grew,  in  the  course  of  a  few 
centuries,  about  one  hundred  and  twenty,  from  which  the 
Bulla  Coense  of  Urban  VIII.  has  selected,  as  mentioned 
above,  exactly  twenty.  But  it  took  some  time — about  two 
centuries — before  to  the  first  was  added  the  second,  and  to 
the  second  the  third  case.  At  the  commencement  of  the 
fourteenth  century  we  find  no  more  than  three  authenticated 
reserved  cases.  In  1364,  however,  Urban  V.  was  already 
able  to  issue  a  regular  Bull  with  seven  cases  from  Avignon, 
among  which  there  appears  for  the  first  time  the  occupation 
of  the  Papal  dominion  and  the  hindering  of  Papal  mes- 
sengers, as  well  as  the  selling  of  ammunition  to  the  enemies 
of  the  Church.  The  latter  proviso  was  enacted  with  a 
special  view  to  that  Pope's  pet  crusade,  inaugurated  by  the 
King  of  Cyprus  and  Peter  Thomas,  which  came  to  so  speedy 
and  ignominious  an  end.  A  new  and  revised  edition  of  the 
Coena  was  put  forth  by  Gregory  XL  in  1370,  and  another 
by  Gregory  XII.  in  1411,  which  begins  in  this  wise  : — "  We 
excommunicate  and  anathematize,  in  the  name  of  God  the 
Father,  and  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  by  the  au- 
thority of  the  Holy  Apostles  Peter  and  Paul  and  our  own, 
all  heretics,  ( Gazaros,  Patarenos,  Pauperes  de  Lugduno, 


APOSTOLIC^  SEDIS.  271 

Arnaldistas,  Speronistas  et  Passaginos/  and  all  other  heretics 
of  whatsoever  name,  and  all  them  that  favour,  receive,  and 
defend  them.  Likewise  do  we  excommunicate  and  anathe- 
matize," &c.  &c.  &c. 

In  1512,  Julius  II.  re-issued  the  Bull,  with  twelve  cases, 
among  which  figures  already  the  curse  upon  falsifiers  of 
Papal  Bulls  and  other  sacred  emanations.  In  1536,  Paul 
III.  had  brought  his  version  up  to  seventeen,  including  the 
curse  upon  them  that  would  make  clerical  persons  submit  to 
the  civil  authorities,  and  those  who  abstract  relics  from 
Koman  churches.  Not  quite  fifty  years  later,  in  1583,  under 
Gregory  XIII.,  the  Bull  had  swollen  to  twenty-one  cases, 
among  which  there  is  the  reading  of  Luther  and  all  or  any 
heretic,  and  the  printing  or  defending  of  such  heretics' 
writings.  In  its  final  shape,  that  due  to  Urban  VIII.,  it  has 
lain  dormant  since  Clement  XIV.,  who  would  no  longer  read 
it  on  Maundy-Thursday — "it  no  longer  being  a  time  for 
cursing  but  for  grace,"  he  said.  But  only  dormant.  It  has 
quietly  kept  its  place,  in  spite  of  many  prohibitions,  in 
several  modern  rituals.  It  is  now  first  abrogated  formally 
by  this  new  "  Constitution." 

We  have  been  at  the  pains  of  comparing  the  two  docu- 
ments somewhat  closely,  in  order  to  see  wherein  the  ft  mode- 
ration "  of  the  Apostolic  See  aforementioned  has  manifested 
itself.  First  of  all  it  must  be  noted  that  our  document  is 
considerably  larger,  embodying  as  it  does  a  number  of  such 
reserved  cases  as  were  left  out  in  the  ancient  Sulla  Coenss. 
Next,  that  the  time-honoured  introduction  to  the  special 
paragraphs  of  the  old  Bull,  " Excommunicamus  et  anathema- 
tizamus"  has  given  way  to  special,  business-like  headings. 
Indeed,  the  difference  between  those  two  papal  terms  of 
displeasure  seems  to  have  become  somewhat  shadowy  in 
these  latter  days.  This  was  not  so  at  one  time.  Indeed,  as 
early  as  the  ninth  century  the  faithful  knew  that  while  "ex- 
communication" merely  meant  exclusion  from  the  Church 
and  all  its  benefits,  together  with  public  penitence  and 
banishment  from  home  and  society,  —  not  to  forget  the 


272  APOSTOLICLE  SEDIS. 

instant  dismissal  from  all  and  every  civil  and  military  office 
or  dignity:  the  state  of  those  that  lay  under  the  "anathema" 
was  far  worse.  They  were  cut  off  utterly  and  irrevocably  as 
"putrid  and  desperate  members"  from  the  entire  body  of 
the  Church.  Unto  them  there  is  "  nulla  legum,  nulla  morum, 
nulla  collegii  participatio"  whether  they  be  alive  or  dead. 
Their  names  "  shall  not  be  remembered  even  among  the 
defunct,"  nor  shall  "  even  in  their  dying  hour  any  communi- 
cation be  held  with  them."  In  many  other  respects  the  text 
of  this  new  "  Constitution  "  of  Pius  IX.  follows  that  of  the 
Bull,  as  far  as  it  goes,  pretty  closely,  sometimes  literally. 
Except,  perhaps,  that  paragraph  1  of  the  latter  figures  now 
as  paragraphs  1  to  3,  or  that  the  "  Latinity  "  has  undergone 
certain  alterations.  If,  e.g.,  the  old  edict  has  "  ac  omnes  et," 
the  new  reads  "  et  omnes  ac ;"  for  "  ac  iis,"  we  have  "  eis- 
que,"  for  "et  generaliter"  we  get  "  ac  generaliter,"  and 
similar  improvements,  "in  accordance  with  the  change  of 
times." 

Yet  more  significant  emendations,  both  of  omission  and 
commission,  are  not  wanting.  We  have  already  said  that 
clause  1  of  the  Coena  is  broken  up  here  into  three,  which 
deal  respectively  with  i{  apostates  and  heretics,"  with 
"  readers,  keepers,  printers,  and  defenders  of  heretical 
books,"  and  "  schismatics  and  others  disobedient  to  the 
Pope."  While  in  the  first  new  paragraph  we  miss  the 
familiar  names  of  "  Hussites,  Wycliffites,  Lutherans,  Zwing- 
lians,  Calvinists,  Huguenots,  Anabaptists,  Trinitarians/'  and 
so  forth,  we  rejoice  to  find  the  second  clause  altered  in 
favour  of  those  persons  whose  business  it  is  to  read  all  the 
bad  books  which  are  to  be  placed  on  the  Index.  Hitherto, 
the  anathema  included  all  and  every  one  who  read  such 
heretical  writings,  "  from  whatsoever  cause ;  publicly  or 
secretly ;  in  whatsoever  spirit ;  and  under  whatsoever 
colour."  This  provision  is  no  more.  Cursed  are  now  only 
those  who  "knowingly  read,  keep,  print,  use,  without  the 
authority  of  the  Holy  See,  the  books  of  those  apostates  and 
heretics  which  propagate  heresy,  as  well  as  those,  by  whom- 


APOSTOLIC^]  SEDIS.  273 

soever  written,  which  are  specially  prohibited  by  apostolic 
letters."  So  that  the  Fathers  of  the  "  Congregation  of  the 
Index  " — here  brought  to  public  recognition— are  theoretical 
outcasts  no  more.  Clause  2  of  the  Coena  becomes  clause  4 
in  our  document.  It  excommunicates  all  and  every  one 
who  should  presume  to  appeal  from  the  Pope  to  a  future 
Council.  The  origin  of  this  decree  has  again  to  be  looked 
for  in  England,  where  the  clergy,  in  the  thirteenth  century, 
•so  far  from  paying  Innocent  IV.  what  he  demanded,  dared 
to  appeal  to  a  future  general  Council  instead.  The  same 
was  done  by  the  two  cardinals  de  Colonna,  Jacobus  and 
Petrus,  whom  Boniface  VIII.  had  deposed  and  excommuni- 
cated. .  Philip  IV.  of  France  appealed  against  the  same 
Pope,  after  having  publicly  burnt  the  Bull,  "  Listen,  0  my 
son,"  directed  against  himself.  Lewis  the  Bavarian  appealed 
in  1324  against  John  XXII.,  and  finally  there  appealed  the 
whole  College  of  Cardinals — except  four,  whom  Gregory 
XII.  had  created,  in  spite  of  his  solemn  oath  to  the  contrary 
— against  that  Holy  Father.  It  was  Martin  V.  who  first 
sought  to  suppress  this  demurring  to  Papal  authority  by 
excommunication;  which,  however,  did  not  prevent  the  Uni- 
versity of  Paris  and  the  clergy  of  the  diocese  of  Kouen  from 
appealing  against  Calixtus  III.  Whereupon  Pius  II.  issued 
the  Bull  "  Execrabilis,"  which,  very  stringent  and  very 
pathetic  as  it  was,  was  so  utterly  disregarded  by  Sigismund, 
Duke  of  Austria,  that,  not  later  than  a  month  after  its  pro- 
mulgation, he  appealed  to  a  future  Council.  Not  very  long 
afterwards,  the  Archbishop  of  Mayence,  being  excommuni- 
cated, followed  his  example  in  also  appealing  against  his 
excommunication  to  a  future  Council.  Likewise  did  the 
Venetians  appeal  to  a  Council  against  Julius  II.,  and  though 
Gregory  XIII.  at  last  placed  this  sin  formally  upon  the  Coena, 
Louis  XIV.  again  appealed  against  Innocent  XI.  Even  so, 
a  few  months  ago,  Pare  Hyacinthe  threatened  to  appeal, 
eventually,  to  a  future  General  Council.  We  at  first  missed 
one  passage  of  this  clause  in  our  new  Bull,  that  treating 
of  "Universities,  Colleges,  and  Chapters/'  until  we  dis- 
covered it  later  on,  leading  off  the  division  of  "  Interdicts." 

T 


274  APOSTOLIC^   SEDIS. 

Entirely  gone  are  clauses  3  to  5  of  the  old  Bull.  They 
treat,  respectively,  of  pirates  and  corsairs  "  in  our  sea,  from 
Argentorato  to  Terracina,  and  all  their  abettors,"  further  of 
wreckers — wrecking  being  a  privilege  granted  occasionally 
to  bishops  and  monasteries — and  of  leviers  of  such  tolls  as 
had  not  been  sanctified  by  the  Pope.  Clause  6  of  the  old 
Bull  reappears  as  number  9  of  the  new.  It  is  devoted  to 
falsifiers  of  Papal  briefs  and  writs,  and  there  is  one  alteration 
noticeable.  For  the  old  "/also  falricantur  "  we  have  the 
mild  "falso  pullieantur"  so  that  it  is  the  propagator  more 
than  the  author  who  must  now  beware.  Time  certainly  was, 
when  forging  absolutions  for  all  manner  of  sin  was  the  source 
of  sundry  good  incomes,  both  lay  and  clerical,  but  it  is  to  be 
feared  that  this  trade  has  become  somewhat  slack.  Nor  are 
they  who  sell  horses,  arms,  and  other  war-materials  to  the 
Turks,  Sarassins,  and  other  heretics,  any  longer  under  the 
ban,  or  those  "  even  if  they  be  emperors,  or  kings,  or  clerical 
dignitaries,"  who  impede  the  carrying  of  victuals  to  Koine,, 
or  who  slay  or  imprison  them  that  go  to  Eome  to  complain 
of  their  bishops — a  practice  once  in  vogue,  but  to  which  the 
bishops  themselves  often  put  a  stop  by  the  unghostly  means 
here  condemned.  Again,  clause  11  that  was,  has  become 
clause  5  that  is,  and  it  is  preserved  scrupulously  intact.  It 
treats  of  all  and  any  harm  done  to  patriarchs,  archbishops, 
bishops,  and  legates.  They  are  not  to  be  "  killed,  mutilated, 
wounded,  beaten,  captured,  imprisoned,  stopped,  persecuted, 
or  turned  out  of  their  dioceses,  lands,  territories,  or  domi- 
nions." Once  upon  a  time,  the  Emperor  Frederic  II.  took 
prisoner  no  less  than  a  hundred  ecclesiastics,  on  their  way  to 
Kome — among  them  three  Papal  legates,  the  Archbishops  of 
Kouen,  Auch,  Bordeaux,  and  many  bishops  and  abbots,, 
some  of  whom  died  in  his  strongholds  in  Apulia.  In  the 
same  spirit  of  irreverence  the  King  of  England  caused  the 
Papal  legates  to  be  "  well  beaten  "  and  turned  out  of 
the  country  in  1232.  Even  Pope  Urban  IV.  when,  as 
Innocent  IV.'s  legate,  he  went  to  Germany,  was  put  into 
prison.  It  was  in  1311,  at  the  Council  of  Vienne,  that 


APOSTOLIC^]  SEDIS.  275 

Clement  Y.  had  this  case  therefore  formally  entered  as 
"  reserved."  When  Cardinal  Borromeo  was  shot  in  his  own 
chapel,  Pius  V.  extended,  in  1569,  the  curse  to  all  those 
who,  having  any  knowledge  of  the  perpetrator  of  an  offence 
against  those  Church  dignitaries,  should  fail  to  betray  him. 
Not  long  after  this,  Henry  III.  of  France  put  the  Cardinal 
of  Lorraine  to  death,  and  Gregory  XIII.  not  only  embodied 
the  case  in  the  Coena,  but  extended  the  protective  ana- 
thema to  even  the  legates  and  messengers  of  the  Apostolic 
See. 

Three  more  of  the  new  paragraphs  correspond,  framed  a 
little  more  concisely,  to  those  of  the  old  document.  They 
refer  to  the  supremacy  of  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction.  Cursed 
is  now,  as  was  then,  all  and  every  person  who  recurs  to  the 
civil  courts  in  anything  relating  to  the  Church,  or  to  persons 
belonging  to  the  Church :  cursed  is  likewise  every  one  who 
makes  laws  contrary  to  the  liberty  of  the  Church,  or  who 
impedes  the  progress  of  any  ecclesiastical  emanation  in  any 
way  whatsoever.  This  excommunication  applies,  in  one 
shape  or  another,  to  well  nigh  every  single  king,  and  em- 
peror, and  prince,  and  president,  and  parliament  and  court 
of  justice,  and  judge  (except  the  Pope  and  his  own  advisers) 
who  at  this  moment  exercise  any  authority  whatsoever.  The 
origin  of  this  "  appeal  from  the  abuse  of  the  Apostolic  Chair 
(as  it  was  called)  to  the  secular  courts,"  emanated  from  the 
clergy  itself,  and  finds  its  first  expression  in  the  reformatory 
decrees  of  the  Councils  of  Basle  and  Constance.  This  power 
of  appeal  against,  e.g.,  the  bestowal  of  rich  benefices  upon 
what  were  considered  the  wrong  persons,  was  first  granted  to 
the  French  clergy  by  Charles  VII.  in  1438,  but  rescinded 
by  the  Concordat  of  1515.  The  Parliament,  however,  in 
utter  disregard  of  it,  continued  to  hear  cases  lodged  by  the 
clergy  against  the  bishops,  and  by  the  bishops  against  the 
Popes.  Then  it  came  to  pass  that  Gregory  XIII.  cursed  all 
these  appeals  in  the  Coena,  as  well  as  the  so-called  placitum 
regium.  By  virtue  of  this  Placet  every  Papal  Bull  or  other 
emanation  harl  to  be  examined  by  the  civil  powers  before  its 

T  2 


276  APOSTOLIOE  SEDIS. 

promulgation  was  allowed^  In  France  it  was  even  necessary 
that  both  Parliaments,  that  of  Toulouse  and  of  Paris,  should 
give  their  permit  each  time,  one  being  considered  insuf- 
ficient. In  Spain  the  prelates  themselves  claimed  the  right 
to  look  into  those  publications  before  they  endorsed  them, 
and  eventually  refused  to  take  any  notice  of  them.  The 
pretext  to  this  proceeding  was  given  by  the  prodigious 
numbers  of  forged  Papal  letters  in  circulation.  Only  such 
as  they  saw  reason  to  approve,  they  said,  did  they  consider 
genuine :  since  the  Pope  would  not  issue  what  displeased 
them.  Leo  X.  protested,  but  in  vain.  Even  so  did  Innocent 
VIII. ;  and  finally  Julius  II.  made  all  let  or  hindrance 
against  the  publication  of  any  of  his  emanations,  whatever 
their  nature,  a  case  in  the  Coena. 

Kegarding  the  other  portion  of  this  enactment,  that  of 
bringing  clerical  matters  before  lay  tribunals,  nothing  can 
be  more  instructive  than  the  history  of  the  struggle  between 
the  Church  and  the  State,  or  the  clerical  and  lay  courts,  as 
to  the  limits  of  their  authority.  The  former  not  merely 
excommunicated  all  those  who  brought  their  complaints  in 
Church  matters  before  laymen,  but  actually  threatened 
whole  countries  where  a  like  thing  was  to  happen,  with  the 
interdict  and  the  refusal  of  burial.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
civil  authorities  punished  all  those  who  took  their  cases  to 
the  Church  authorities.  They  fined  them  and  imprisoned 
them  ;  them,  their  friends,  notaries,  and  counsels,  until  they 
desisted.  Worse  still,  if  any  one  had,  with  a  large  outlay, 
at  last  obtained  a  censure  from  Rome  against  his  adversary, 
he  was  himself  compelled  to  procure  absolution  for  such 
censure.  Stronger  even  was  the  resistance  against  arraign- 
ing ecclesiastics  bodily  before  a  lay  forum ;  and  the  Synod 
of  Nismes,  in  1096,  declared  this  to  be  nothing  less  than 
"  terrible  sacrilege ;"  and  to  clinch  the  matter,  all  judicial 
acts  against  clerics  were  pronounced  null  and  void.  The 
Third  Lateran  Council  excommunicated  the  very  attempt  of 
bringing  a  cleric  to  ordinary  justice,  and  incessant  were  the 
reiterations  and  protests  enacted  by  subsequent  Councils. 


APOSTOLICLE  SED1S.  277 

But  little  attention  was  paid  to  them  until,  in  1536,  Paul 
III.  embodied  the  matter  in  the  Ccena.  In  1855,  Pius  IX. 
had  to  yield  the  point  in  the  late  Austrian  Concordat,  but 
he  did  so  under  protest,  and  with  the  special  clause  tern- 
porum  ratione  hdbita.  The  Concordat  has  gone  the  way  of 
many  another  Concordat,  and  the  old  enactment  has  now 
renewed  its  days. 

The  tenth  clause  of  the  new  Bull  is  not  found  in  the  old 
Bull,  though  it  is  not  new  in  itself.  It  is  one  of  the  six- 
score  "  outside  cases "  of  which  we  spoke  before.  It  pro- 
hibits clerics  who  have  sinned  against  the  seventh  command- 
ment from  confessing  arid  absolving  the  women  with  whom 
they  have  sinned.  The  frail  ones  must  go  to  another  and 
more  impartial  confessor;  or  rather,  as  the  Council  of 
Eheims  enacted,  the  priest  in  question  is  to  be  absolved  first, 
after  which  he  shall  absolve  those  women.  However,  the 
prohibition,  entered  and  re-entered  upon  the  Acts  of  Council 
after  Council,  does  not  seem  to  have  been  very  rigorously 
kept.  At  last,  however,  the  matter  had  become  so  flagrant, 
that  Benedict  XIV.,  in  the  "  Sacramentum  Poenitentitt" 
forbade  a  priest  ever  to  absolve  at  the  confessional  a  woman 
with  whom  he  had  notoriously  broken  his  vows — even  during 
a  Jubilee.  His  absolution  is,  except  in  case  of  death  "  and 
if  no  other  priest  be  nigh,"  that  is,  if  another  priest  could 
not  be  called  in  "  without  great  risk  of  infamy  and  scandal," 
declared  null  and  void  ;  and,  adds  Benedict  in  that  decree, 
the  guilty  confessor  should  not  persuade  himself  of  the  exist- 
ence of  a  like  risk  of  infamy  and  scandal,  if  there  really  be 
none  such.  Further,  though  the  absolution  given  by  a  like 
confessor  be  valid,  he  himself  remains  under  the  excom- 
munication for  all  that. 

Our  eleventh  paragraph  corresponds  to  the  seventeenth 
of  the  Ccena.  It  prohibits  usurpation  and  sequestration  of 
Church  property.  For  the  old  quive  .  .  .  usurpant  vel  .  .  . 
sequestrant  we  have  the  new  latinity,  usurpantes  aut  seques- 
trantes ;  for  fructus  we  have  lona ;  for  the  plural  jurisdic- 
tiones  we  have  the  singular ;  the  word  proventus  has  been 


278  APOSTOLIC^E  SEDIS. 

struck  out,  and  also  the  whole  sentence,  "Which,  belong 
unto  Us  and  the  Apostolic  See,"  as  well  as  the  word 
"monasteries."  The  tailpiece  whereby  such  seizing  of 
goods  or  lands  was  permitted,  if  done  by  order  of  the  Pope, 
is  also  no  more.  It  is  true  enough  that  the  Church  has 
often  had  to  suffer  from  these  "usurpations."  She  was  so 
rich  that  the  worldly  powers,  in  spite  of  the  thunders  of  the 
first,  second,  and  third  Lateran  Councils,  would  stretch  out 
their  hands  after  the  res  dominicte,  Deo  sacratte,  ra  rov  0eov, 
&c.,  as  these  possessions  were  variously  styled.  And  not 
merely,  as  the  third  Lateran  Council  complained,  "when 
these  men  want  to  build  castles  or  to  go  to  war,"  did  they 
contract  forced  loans  with  the  Church,  but  as  early  as  the 
fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries  many  princes  fell  into  a 
way  of  secularising  right  and  left  what  they  deemed  an 
encumbrance  upon  the  Holy  Church,  which,  they  said,  "  was 
to  look  to  the  riches  of  heaven."  Nay,  not  satisfied  with 
annexing  churches  and  chapels,  they  even  took  possession 
sometimes  of  the  castles,  villas,  parks,  and  fishing  and 
hunting  grounds,  of  archbishops  and  bishops.  The  conse- 
quence was  so  wild  an  uproar,  that  the  Synod  of  Lavaux 
pronounced  the  Anathema  upon  such  robbers,  and  placed 
their  entire  domains  under  the  Interdict.  If  such  comes, 
senescallus,  laro,  judex,  or  capitantus  died,  his  body  was  not 
to  be  buried — even  if  he  had  died  in  a  state  of  absolution — 
until  his  heir  had  made  restitution  to  the  full.  Further 
Councils  deprived  even  those  who  only  advised  burial  of 
such  transgressors  of  the  benefit  of  interment.  Yet  matters 
do  not  seem  to  have  been  altered  much  by  these  threats. 
When  Louis  XI.  of  France  wished  a  General  Council  to  be 
summoned,  Sixtus  IV.  bitterly  answered,  "  It  would  be  better 
for  the  honour  of  some  princes  if  a  like  Council  did  not  take 
place,  since  it  might  otherwise  reveal  their  usurpation  of 
Church  property."  In  1512,  Julius  II.  entered  this  sin  duly 
in  the  old  Bull.  Paul  III.  extended  its  provisions  still 
further,  and  Gregory  III.  made  new  additions  with  special 
regard  to  the  Holy  See  and  all  that  belonged  to  it. 


APOSTOL1OE  SEDIS.  279 

The  last  paragraph  of  the  "  specially  reserved "  cases  of 
the  new  document  forms  also  the  last  paragraph  of  the  Bulla 
Coense.  But  a  considerable  shortening  has  taken  place  : — 

"  Likewise  do  we  excommunicate  and  anathematize  all  those  " — so  reads 
the  old — "  who  by  themselves  or  by  others,  directly  or  indirectly,  under 
whatsoever  title  or  colour,  do  presume  to  invade,  destroy,  occupy,  and 
detain,  entirely  or  in  part,  the  Holy  City,  the  kingdom  of  Sicily,  the  islands 
of  Sardinia  and  Corsica,  the  lands  this  side  of  the  Pharos,  the  Patrimony  of 
Peter  in  Tuscia,  the  Duchy  of  Spoleto,  the  counties  of  Venaisin,  Sabina, 
the  Marches  of.  Ancona,  Massa,  Trebaria,  Eomandiola,  Campania,  and  the 
maritime  provinces,  and  their  lands  and  places,  and  the  lands  of  the  special 
commission  of  the  Arnulphs,  and  our  cities  Bologna,  Cesena,  Rimini,  Bene- 
vento,  Perugia,  Avignon,  Civita  Castello,  Trederzo, ,  Ferrara,  Comachio, 
.and  other  cities,  counties,  and  places,  or  rights  belonging  to  the  Roman 
•Church  itself,  and  subject  directly  or  indirectly  to  the  said  Roman  Church, 
or  who  presume  de  facto  to  usurp,  disturb,  retain,  and  in  various  ways  to 
interfere  with,  that  supreme  jurisdiction  over  them  belonging  to  Us  and 
to  this  same  Roman  Church.  Likewise  (do  we,  &c.  &c.)  their  partisans, 
favourers,  and  defenders,  who  give  them  assistance,  counsel,  or  favour  of 
whatsoever  kind." 

The  present  remarkably  concise  version  runs  as  follows : — 

"  Those  who  invade,  destroy,  retain,  either  by  themselves  or  by  others, 
the  cities,  lands,  places,  or  rights  belonging  to  the  Roman  Church,  or  who 
usurp,  disturb,  and  retain  supreme  jurisdiction  over  them,  or  who  give 
*  ad  singula  prcedicta '  help,  counsel,  or  favour." 

Ad  ecclesiam  Eomanam  pertinentia,  "belonging  to  the 
Roman  Church,"  says  the  new  Canon.  What  does  belong  to 
the  Roman  Church  now  ?  Rome  herself  is  "  held,  invaded, 
occupied."  And  it  is  grievous  to  see  our  clause  literally 
pronouncing  excommunication  over  the  Pope  and  his  Car- 
dinals themselves.  For  is  it  not  they  who  do  "retain  the 
supreme  jurisdiction  "  in  whatever  still,  apparently  at  least, 
belongs  to  the  Church  ?  However,  the  Pope  may  disregard 
even  anathemas.  Can  he  not  "loose"? 

Thus  much  for  the  new  edition  of  the  Sulla  Coente,  which, 
in  spite  of  Clement  XIY.  having  declared  it  "  unchristian 
and  dangerous,"  in  spite  of  Joseph  II.'s  order  to  "tear  it  out 
of  the  Rituals,"  silently  kept  its  place  for  a  hundred  years- 
awaiting  that  resurrection  which  has  now  come.  At  no 


280  APOSTOLIC^   SED1S. 

time,  however,  has  it  been  a  favourite.  Many  patriarchs, 
bishops,  and  archbishops  would  not  hear  of  it  on  any  account, 
though  they  were  ordered  to  publish  it  in  their  dioceses — 
nay,  fell  under  the  very  ban  of  excommunication  by  not 
doing  so.  Tims  Archbishop  Afire  writes:  "Quant  a  la 
Bulle  '  In  Coena  Domini '  on  ne  reprochait  pas  au  clerge  de 
France  d'avoir  voulu  la  promulguer.  Et,  en  effet,  il  n'y  a 
jamais  pense."  The  Council  of  Trent  had  certainly  made 
the  "  Bull  "  rather  illusory  by  granting,  in  its  twenty-fourth 
sitting,  the  power  of  absolving  from  all  secret  reserved  cases, 
to  every  bishop.  This  privilege  was,  however,  withdrawn  by 
Pius  V.  and  Gregory  XIII.  In  the  middle  of  the  seven- 
teenth century  much  wrangling  again  restored  this  right  to 
the  bishops.  They  now  received  the  permission  ("  Quin- 
quennial Faculties  ")  to  absolve  from  all  reserved  cases,  open 
or  secret,  including  heresy.  And  still  the  Bull  was  not 
liked,  and  still  none  would  tolerate  it.  If  previously  Philip 
II.  had  turned  the  Nuntius  who  came  as  its  bearer  out  of 
Spain ;  if  France,  Portugal,  and  even  Kudolph  II.  of  Ger- 
many had  prohibited  its  publication ;  its  end  came  when 
Clement  XIII.  saw  fit  to  pronounce  the  anathema  over 
Ferdinand  of  Parma,  in  1768.  Its  introduction  into  France 
was  nearly  made  a  crimen  Isesse  majestatis.  The  same  was 
done  in  Portugal,  where  the  Crown  Fiscal  damned  the  Breve 
as  "contrary  to  the  Gospel,  which  had  inculcated  obedience 
to  Caasar."  Maria  Theresa  followed  fiercely.  Ferdinand 
VII.  of  Naples  banished  both  the  Bull  and  the  priests  who 
presumed  to  take  it  seriously,  out  of  his  states.  The  Duke 
of  Parma  issued  a  decree  which  branded  the  Bull  as  a  source 
of  rebellion  and  useless  banishments,  and  annulled  it.  The 
same  was  done  by  Monaco,  Genoa,  Venice.  Maria  Theresa 
sent  a  special  edict  to  Lombardy  to  warn  the  printers  and 
possessors  of  this  document.  The  "  Oekonomaljunta  "  were 
authorized  to  inflict  upon  such  transgressors  what  punish- 
ment they  pleased. 

Then  came  Clement  XIV.  who  abrogated  it ;  and  then— 
exactly  a  hundred  years  later — Pius  IX.  who  renewed  it  in 


APOSTOLIC^]  SEDIS.  281 

the  shape  now  before  us.  We  can  but  briefly  glance  at  the 
rest  of  the  edict,  which  embodies  what  obsolete  "  extra " 
cases  it  has  been  deemed  proper  thus  solemnly  to  revive,, 
referring  such  of  our  readers  as  are  eager  for  more  details  to 
Mansi,  Phillips,  Hefele,  Le  Bret,  Hausmann,  Kaumer,  and 
the  acts  and  histories  of  the  Church  generally.  Cursed  are,, 
again,  e.g.  those  who  defend,  even  privately,  propositions 
condemned  by  the  Pope — which  applies  especially  to  the 
"Syllabus"  Cursed  are  they  who  lay  violent  hands,  "at 
the  instigation  of  the  devil,"  on  "  monks  of  either  sex," — 
which  is  the  aboriginal  "  Percussio  clerici"  in  the  very 
words  of  1130.  Cursed  are  they  who  "perpetrate"  a  duel, 
as  well  as  all  participators  and  abettors  thereof,  and  those 
who  do  not  prevent  them,  if  they  can,  "be  they  even  of 
royal  or  imperial  dignity."  This  prohibition  dates,  in  the 
shape  of  a  Bull,  from  Leo,  in  1519,  and  extended  even  to 
spectators,  who  were  mulcted  in  many  ducats.  Cursed  are, 
further,  all  Freemasons  and  Carbonari.  It  was  at  the 
Council  of  Avignon,  in  1325,  that  all  secret  societies  were 
first  condemned.  But  Freemasons  as  such,  of  whose  exist- 
ence Clement  XII.  "  had  heard  a  rumour,"  were  especially 
anathematized  by  him  in  a  Bull.  And  the  inquisitors  re- 
ceived strict  orders  to  look  after  the  orthodoxy  of  the  sup- 
posed Brethren.  Benedict  XIV.  renewed  this  " Constitution," 
giving  six  reasons  for  so  doing,  and  its  last  Papal  confirma- 
tion dates  1846,  and  is  signed  Pius  IX. 

Many  also  are  the  regulations  re-enacted  regarding  eccle- 
siastics themselves.  Such  is  the  one  which  prohibits  the 
violation  of  the  "  Clausura  "  by  pain  of  reserved  excommuni- 
cation. Time  was  when  women,  by  reason  of  special  Papal 
permits,  were  free  to  enter  monasteries,  there  to  choose  their 
own  confessors :  an  arrangement  which  does  not  seem  to 
have  given  general  satisfaction  to  the  outer  world.  When 
the  scandal  grew  too  fierce,  Pius  Y.  restricted  the  permission 
to  the  monasteries  of  the  congregation  of  the  Holy  Virgin 
"  of  the  Mount."  Women  might  visit  those,  but  only  when 
there  was  a  service,  or  procession,  or  a  sermon,  or  burial,  or 


282  APOSTOLIC^  SEDIS. 

any  kind  of  ceremony.  And  there  always  was  some  kind  of 
ceremony.  In  the  course  of  the  eighteenth  century,  how- 
ever, this  custom  of  allowing  women  to  visit  the  refectories 
and  dormitories,  "  in  order  to  take  part  in  processions  and 
other  ceremonies,"  had  spread  far  beyond  the  original 
bounds; — until  Benedict  XIV.,  in  1742,  issued  a  new  and 
more  stringent  Bull.  On  the  other  hand,  Gregory  XIII. 
had  restricted  men,  as  early  as  1575,  from  paying  stray 
visits  to  nunneries — unless  they  possessed  special  licences. 
As  for  clerics  who  had  ipso  facto  the  permission  of  entering 
nunneries,  these  were  exhorted  in  that  Bull  not  to  make  too 
extensive  a  use  of  their  privilege,  else  both  they  and  the 
nuns  who  received  them  would  fall  under  the  ban. 

Besides  these  "  cases,"  which  thus  seem  to  have  required 
renewing  rather  urgently,  we  meet  again  with  the  trading 
in  indulgences,  defrauding  the  Church  by  obtaining  higher 
prices  for  masses,  and  the  pilfering  of  alms — all  very  ancient 
institutions.  Then  we  have  also  simony,  of  which  there  are 
three  cases, — "  confidential  simony  "  among  them.  This  is 
rather  recent.  It  appears  first  in  the  sixteenth  century,  and 
means  that  somebody  hands  over  his  clerical  office,  which  is 
a  certain  hindrance  to  him,  to  some  one  else  for  a  life 
pension.  Generally  this  pension  left  so  little  to  the  real 
•de  facto  dignitaries  that  these  came  to  be  styled  eustodini,  or 
even,  as  at  the  Councils  of  Kouen  and  Narbonne,  cisiellarii 
asini,  "inasmuch  as  they  bore  the  burden  of  office  while 
another  ate  the  fruits  thereof."  Bishops,  archbishops,  patri- 
archs, nay,  cardinals  themselves,  casually  obtained  benefices 
in  order  to  resign  them,  in  favour  of  some  one  perhaps  not 
yet  born,  for  a  consideration.  This  scandal,  too,  became 'at 
last  so  flagrant  that  Pius  IV.,  having  exhausted  all  his 
powers  of  exhortation,  anathematized  it :  declaring  all  such 
benefices  accepted  in  confidentiam  null  and  void ;  all  con- 
tracts thereto  referring,  waste  paper;  and  all  those  who 
lived  upon  the  incomes  of  places  which  other  people  held, 
bound  to  refund.  But  this  Bull  again  had  to  be  renewed, 
because  flagrantly  disregarded,  by  Pius  V.  and  by  endless 


APOSTOLIC^  SEDIS.  283 

provincial  Councils,  and  was  even  ordered  to  be  read  out 
aloud  every  Sunday  in  church.  In  cursing  this  form  of 
simony  anew,  Pius  IX.  shows  that  it  flourishes  now,  as  ever. 

Among  the  "  non-reserved  "  cases  we  meet  the  Inquisition, 
which  is  not  to  be  "  intimidated  "  or  hurt.  Curious  as  this 
proviso  may  seem  to  us,  there  was  a  time  when  it.  went  hard 
enough  with  the  officers  of  that  institution.  Some  of  them 
found  their  deaths  in  a  surprisingly  sudden  manner,  and  the 
Dominicans,  who  were  especially  singled  out  for  the  function 
of  holy  espionage,  at  one  time  actually  wrote  to  Innocent  IV. 
begging  to  be  excused  for  the  future.  But  he  would  not 
part  with  them,  and  wrote  them  letters  of  comfort  instead. 
Pope  Pius  V.,  when  plain  Michael  Gislerius,  had  undertaken 
to  find  out  something  about  the  Bishop  of  Bergamo,  but  he 
only  narrowly  escaped  being  lynched  instead.  Kemember- 
ing  these  things  when  he  ascended  the  Papal  throne,  many 
were  the  protecting  clauses  wherewith  he  surrounded  the 
Inquisition  and  its  officers,  down  to  the  lowest  menials — as 
well  as  all  inquisitorial  witnesses,  accusers,  denouncers,  spies, 
&c.  Likewise  were  anathematized  by  him  all  those  who 
should  touch  the  inquisitorial  houses,  properties,  churches, 
and  other  goods,  as  well  as  books,  letters,  protocols,  transac- 
tions, &c.  &c.  Another  not  reserved  case  of  our  new  Bull 
treats  of  those  who  do  not,  within  a  certain  time,  denounce 
such  confessors  or  priests  by  whom  they  have  been  instigated 
to  certain  disgraceful  acts ;  and  yet  another,  of  those  who  are 
instrumental  in  giving  Christian  burial  to  notorious  heretics, 
or  such  as  lie  under  special  excommunication  or  interdict. 
To  the  bishops,  or  "  ordinaries,"  are  left  exactly  three  cases : 
to  wit,  married  clerical  persons  of  either  sex,  who,  by  marry- 
ing, not  only  fall  under  the  excommunication  themselves, 
but  bring  it  down  also  upon  the  partners  of  their  guilt; 
further,  those  who  use  forged  apostolic  letters ;  and  another, 
which  we  prefer  not  to  mention.  Among  the  second  division 
of  the  excommunications,  there  is  also  a  clause  threatening 
those  who  should  extract  relics  from  sacred  cemeteries  or  the 
Roman  catacombs  ;  but  we  miss  the  ancient  enactment 


284  APOSTOLIC^  SEDIS. 

against  purloining  things  from  the  Vatican.  Formerly— 
since  Clement  III. — the  very  porters  had  to  take  an  oath 
that  they  would  "  neither  steal,  nor  allow  to  be  stolen  there- 
from, relics,  gold,  silver,  gems,  pallia,  ornaments,  books, 
papers  (cliartulai),  oil,  lead,  iron,  brass,  stones,  doors,  wood, 
or  the  tables  thereof."  The  Vatican  is  better  guarded  now, 
and  the  oath  is  dispensed  with. 

Thus  far  our  notes.  Whether  the  Council  now  sitting- 
will,  or  will  not,  mark  an  epoch  in  the  history  of  Home — 
whether  this  "  Constitution "  itself,  some  of  whose  enact- 
ments may,  at  one  time,  have  been  useful  enough,  be  a  mere 
Irutum  fulmen,  as  alleged,  or  not — we  do  not  pretend  to 
know.  But  they  are  both  Signs  of  the  Times  as  singular  as. 
they  are  humiliating. 


xnr. 

THE  ROMAN  PASSION  DKAMA, 


THE  Koman  "  Passion  Drama  "  increases  in  interest.  The 
Avorld  at  large,  which  has  hitherto  looked  on  with  a  sort  of 
languid  wonderment  akin  to  contempt,  opens  its  eyes  and 
listens.  Instead  of  rumours  more  or  less  contradictory,  we 
have  been  able  to  present  our  readers  in  the  course  of  the 
last  few  days  with  a  series  of  documents  which  certainly  were 
worth  perusal.  There  was  the  petition  for  the  Infallibility 
— which  breathes  the  spirit,  the  learning,  and  the  righteous- 
ness of  our  own  Cardinal  in  spe,  Monsignor  Manning — signed 
by  a  nameless  crowd  of  Italians.  Then  came  the  counter- 
petition,  much  shorter,  very  much  to  the  point,  full  of  dignity, 
and  ominous  in  its  bearing ;  and  it  had  the  signatures  of 
Cardinal  Schwarzenberg  and  the  archbishops  and  bishops 
of  Germany  and  Hungary.  Next  we  had  the  manifesto 
attributed  to  Cardinal  Kauscher,  signed  by  the  same,  or 
nearly  the  same,  distinguished  prelates,  against  the  Papal 
order  of  proceedings,  introduced,  contrary  to  all  precedents, 
into  this  Council :  an  order  which  is  meant  to  gag  and  kill 
that  which  is  the  first  condition  of  a  Council — free  expression 
of  opinion.  Over  and  above  these  we  have  had  the  protest 
of  "Janus"  Dollinger,  for  which  the  Municipal  Council  of 
Munich  have  offered  him  the  freedom  of  their  city. 

Perhaps  by  the  time  this  reaches  Kome  the  contemptuous 
shout  will  greet  us  :  —  Consummation  est.  The  Infalliblists 
fire  said  to  be  now  moving  swiftly  and  surely  towards  their 
goal.  Organized  to  perfection,  with  all  and  every  means  at 


Be-priiitod,  by  permission,  from  the  'Pall  Mall  Gazette'  of  Feb.  10,  1870. 


286  THE  ROMAN  PASSION  DRAMA. 

their  disposal,  and  stung  to  the  quick  by  the  sudden  danger 
of  losing  what  already  seemed  theirs — they  have  lost  no  time 
in  gathering  all  the  signatures  that  were  to  be  got  from  the 
episcopal  multitudes  who  depend  upon  the  Papal  coffers  even 
for  daily  bread,  and  they  have  carried  their  petition  to  the 
Council.  The  anti-Infalliblists,  broken  up  into  at  least  five 
groups  of  nationalities,  hemmed  in  at  every  single  step, 
alternately  bullied  and  flattered,  believing  to  the  last  in  the 
official  assurance  that  the  intended  proclamation  of  that 
dogma  was  all  a  myth,  hesitated,  deliberated,  waited.  Nay, 
that  very  counter-petition,  brief  as  it  was,  they  would  not 
issue  until  they  had  held  some  fifteen  or  sixteen  meetings 
over  it.  No  wonder  the  Infalliblists  will  "  have  it,"  when- 
ever the  hour  comes. 

That  is  to  say,  the  majority  will  outvote  the  minority. 
Now  it  so  happens  that  never  since  the  Council  of  Nicsea 
have  parties  outvoted  each  other  at  a  Council.  Not  a  single 
dogma  has  ever  been  carried  against  an  opposition.  Every 
single  "  resolution  "  was  passed  either  unanimously  or  not  at 
all.  Even  at  Trent,  where,  as  now  at  the  Vatican,  the 
Council  was  hectored  by  an  overwhelming  number  of 
Italians,  some  dogmas  which  Kome  had  tenderly  at  heart 
were,  after  having  already  passed  all  the  preliminary  stages, 
thrown  up — simply  and  solely  because  some  few  bishops 
openly  remonstrated.  The  worst  is  that — so  little  did  that 
party  which  rules  the  Vatican  and  the  Council  dream  of  the 
possibility  of  an  opposition — not  longer  than  two  years  ago 
one  of  their  first  spokesmen,  the  Jesuit  Father  Matignon, 
printed  these  words : — "  Le  Concile  n'imposait  rien  a  notre 
foi  qui  n'eut  obtenu  a  peu  pres  Vunanimite  des  votes.  L'obli- 
gation  de  croire  est  une  chose  si  grave,  le  droit  de  lier  les 
intelligences  est  un  droit  si  auguste  et  si  important,  que  les 
peres  pensaient  rien  devoir  user  qu'avec  la  plus  grande 
reserve  et  la  plus  extreme  delicatesse." 

We  do  not  pretend  to  foresee  what  will  happen  next.  The 
Bishops  of  Fulda  pledged  themselves  before  they  went  to 
Rome,  saying  :  "  Never  shall  or  can  a  General  Council  esta- 
blish a  dogma  not  contained  in  Scripture  or  in  the  Apostolic 


THE  EOMAN  PASSION  DEAMA.  287 

traditions."  They  have  kept  their  word  in  trying  hard  to 
prevent  it.  But  if  they  do  not  succeed,  what  will  be  their 
next  step  ?  For  now  they  will  not  be  in  a  mood  even  to 
decree  the  bodily  assumption  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  or  to 
"raise  the  hoiy  Joseph  out  of  the  obscurity  in  which  he 
has  so  long  and  undeservedly  languished,"  as  the  peti- 
tions put  it  which  have  now  reached  our  own  country  for 
signature. 

It  may  be  well  on  the  eve  of  the  new  phase  to  take 
another  glance  at  these  documents  before  mentioned.  There 
is,  first,  the  petition  itself,  the  sum  and  substance  of  all  that 
which  the  Jesuits  have  preached  from  the  housetops  and  in 
the  secret  chamber  for  some  twenty  years  past,  for  which 
they  have  collected  money  and  built  churches,  monasteries, 
and  convents,  and  have  founded  societies  and  journals  and 
schools  from  one  end  of  the  globe  to  the  other.  It  is  the 
Unita,  the  Laacher-Stimmen,  Father  Schrader,  Monsignor 
Manning,  all  rolled  in  one.  And  what  is  the  gist  of  it  ? — 
We  must  have  the  Infallibility.  True,  it  is  not  in  Scripture 
any  more  than  in  the  Fathers.  But  two  Councils,  one  of 
which  was  openly  proclaimed  at  Trent  to  have  been  non- 
cecumenical,  have  said  something  which,  if  garbled  and  mis- 
quoted, might  look  as  if  they  had  assumed  that  Infallibility. 
Besides  which?  several  provincial  synods  held  within  the  last 
twenty  years  under  our  own  auspices  have  been  made  to  say 
something  like  it.  And  thus  we  have  on  our  side  the 
"ancient  testimonies  of  the  Church."  But,  they  add,  in 
somewhat  anxious  loquaciousness,  had  we  known  that  these 
Germans  were  about  to  oppose  us  at  the  last  moment  we 
certainly  should  have  taken  different  steps.  There  is  no 
special  reason  why  the  dogma  should  be  proclaimed  just 
now,  or  why  it  should  be  proclaimed  at  all.  But — we  are 
in  for  it.  To  withdraw  is  impossible.  We,  you,  and  the 
Pope  are  all  committed  and  compromised  as  deeply  as  ever 
we  can  be,  and  it  must  be  passed.  If  you  do  not  pass  it, 
what  will  the  world  say  of  us  ?  Think  of  the  newspapers- 
will  they  not  pretend  that  they  have  frightened  us  out  of 
our  dogma  ?  Nay,  the  faithful  themselves  would  look  upon 


"288  THE  ROMAN  PASSION  DRAMA. 

us  rather  suspiciously,  if  not  contemptuously,  if  we  should 
now  back  out  of  what  we  have  inculcated  so  indefatigably 
for  all  these  years.  Nay,  other  things  would  begin  to  be 
called  in  question  by  them  at  which  we  dare  not  even  hint. 
Yet  some  say  the  time  is  not  ripe.  The  dogma  is  good,  but 
"  inopportune."  It  will  frighten  away,  they  fancy,  or  pre- 
tend to  fancy,  the  feeble  in  Faith  within,  and  the  schismatics 
and  heretics  without.  Why,  this  is  the  very  thing  we  want. 
Let  the  traitors  in  the  camp,  those  rotten  leaves,  drop  off 
openly.  That  will  only  strengthen  our  hands.  As  for 
heretics  and  schismatics,  we  fancy  they  will  be  rather  at- 
tracted by  our  unshrinking  boldness.  They  will,  in  the 
midst  of  the  dissensions  in  their  own  Churches,  or  in  the 
struggles  of  their  own  scepticism,  take  refuge  in  what  would 
appear  to  them  to  rest  on  such  firm  foundations,  that  which 
dares  all  storms,  and  alone  remains  unmoved  while  all  else 
moves  right  or  left.  Therefore,  it  is  good,  and  it  is  oppor- 
tune, to  make  Infallibility  as  the  crown  and  summit  of  that 
proud  edifice,  the  Koman  Church.  Nay,  the  Catholic  people 
have  a  right  to  it.  Therefore  sign,  and  sign  quickly  :  Peri- 
culum  in  mora  ! 

We  have  shown  in  our  abstract  of  Dr.  Dollinger's  protest 
what  mincemeat  he  made  of  that  document.  But  for  some 
reason  or  other  he  still  seems  to  have  left  out  the  most 
important  point  when  he  showed  that  the  two  proofs  taken 
from  the  Councils  of  Lyons  and  Florence  were  rotten  to  the 
core.  At  Lyons,  he  says,  the  point  in  question  was  not 
agreed  upon,  as  alleged,  by  both  Greeks  and  Latins,  but  the 
Pope  sent  a  formula  to  the  Emperor  Michael  Palaeologus  to 
sign,  wherein  the  sentence  quoted  was  contained.  The 
Emperor,  utterly  unable  to  help  himself,  signed,  but  pro- 
tested. The  bishops  had  absolutely  nothing  to  do  with  it, 
they  were  not  even  in  a  position  to  be  asked  about  it.  All 
this  is  true  enough ;  but  Dr.  Dollinger  might  have  pointed 
out  further  that  that  formula  had  no  more  to  do  with 
declaring  the  Pope  infallible  than  with  declaring  him  im- 
mortal, it  being  simply  and  solely  intended  as  a  recognition 
of  the  long-contested  superiority  of  the  Roman  Chair  to  that 


THE  ROMAN  PASSION  DRAMA.  289 

of  Constantinople.  Not  long  ago  the  Civilta  tried  on  that 
passage  as  a  proof  that  the  Pope  was  superior  to  the  Council. 
But  it  was  very  soon  warned  off,  if  we  remember  right,  in 
one  of  that  series  of  papers  which  appeared  in  the  Times 
before  the  opening  of  the  Council.  It  was  there  shown  how 
neither  Lyons  nor  Florence  had  anything  to  do  with  that 
question.  The  Infalliblists  have  again  "cooked"  their 
passage.  They  quote :  "  Subortas  de  fide  controversias  de- 
bere  Eomani  Pontificis  judicio  definiri  " — "  Discussions  on 
matters  of  faith  must  be  settled  by  the  judgment  of  the 
Koman  Pontiff."  But  these  two  words  "  Koman  Pontiff  "  do 
not  exist  in  the  original.  In  the  "Symbol"  sent  by  the 
Pope,  and  signed  by  the  Emperor,  to  which  the  Infalliblists 
refer,  and  which  begins,  "  Credimus  Sanctam  Trinitatem," 
we  find  the  word  suo  instead,  and  that  pronoun  happens  to 
refer  not  to  the  Pontiff,  but  to  the  Eoinan  Church, l(  which 
before  all  other  Churches  is  called  to  defend  the  truth,"  and 
'•'to  which,  through  Peter,  whose  successor  is  the  Pope,  is 
given  the  plenitude  of  power,  the  primacy  and  supremacy 
over  all  other  Churches."  It  is  always,  from  beginning  to 
end,  the  Ecclesia  Eomana,  and  not  the  Pope.  It  is  she  who, 
"though  she  has  honoured  other  Churches  with  privileges, 
has  yet  always  preserved  her  own  prerogative,  both  in 
General  Councils  and  elsewhere."  Neither  is  there,  in  the 
oath  sworn  on  that  occasion  in  the  name  of  the  Emperor  by 
the  Logothetos,  the  slightest  mention  made  of  a  Pontiff.  It 
is  the  Church,  and  nothing  but  the  Church  herself,  to  which, 
as  such,  the  Greeks  yield  the  Primacy.  As  a  matter  of 
history,  what  the  Council  of  Lyons  had  established  in  1274 
was  utterly  revoked  by  the  Greeks  in  1282,  and  the  very 
remembrance  of  it  was  stamped  out. 

As  to  that  notorious  Council  of  Florence,  "  which  some  do 
not  blush  to  babble  of  as  non-oecumenical,"  Dr.  Dollinger 
has  sufficiently  shown  how  the  Infalliblists  have  forged  and 
falsified  the  quotation  taken  from  that.  There  is  one  "  defi- 
nition," however,  which  they  might  have  quoted,  but  did 
not,  belonging  to  that  ill-fated  Florentine  Council — we  mean 
the  infallible  decree  of  Eugenius  IV.,  "  That  the  souls  of  all 


290  THE  EOMAN  PASSION  DEAMA. 

those  who  die  in  the  state  of  original  sin  descend  to  the 
infernal  regions;"  which  means  that  all  those  untold  mil- 
liards of  human  beings  who  have  not  received  baptism, 
whether  they  have  been  born  before  that  institution,  or  have 
not  been  discovered  by  Exeter  Hall,  go  to  hell.  Let  us  add 
at  once  that  many  and  sore  have  been  the  wrigglings  of 
theologians  on  this  point.  That  religion  which  is  love  did 
seem  to  deal  a  little  harshly  on  that  point.  But  they  all 
took  comfort  finally  in  this,  that  it  was  not  an  (Ecumenical 
Council  which  had  said  it,  only  a  Pope;  and  it  was  only 
both  together  who,  according  to  the  catechism  as  used  to 
this  hour,  make  up  Infallibility.  Nous  avons  change  tout 
cela :  there  is  no  chance  for  those  poor  unbaptized  souls 
now  ! 

It  is  well  known  now  that  the  two  episcopal  protests  were 
not  permitted  to  be  printed  in  Eome,  while  the  original 
petition  was  issued  by  the  official  press.  That  of  Cardinal 
Schwarzenberg  lifts  up  its  voice  against  the  gag  upon  the 
freedom  of  deliberation.  It  claims  this  freedom  as  guaran- 
teed by  the  Council  of  Trent,  and  the  Bishops  hint — nay, 
say — that  if  the  Pope  be  the  head  they  are  the  limbs  of  the 
Church.  Woe  unto  that  head  which  is  separated  from  its 
limbs !  Whether  it  be  or  be  not  conscious  of  its  existence 
after  being  separated,  it  certainly  does  not  thrive  much  after 
the  separation.  The  other  protest,  Cardinal  Kauscher's, 
very  deliberately  sets  its  face  against  that  pernicious  and 
degrading  dogma,  as  well  as  against  the  manner  in  which 
the  bishops  are  being  bullied  into  it.  Not  that  the  dogma 
is  particularly  inopportune,  but  they  will  not  have  it  at  any 
time  or  price.  "  They  know  the  spirit  and  temper  both  of 
the  peoples  and  the  Governments  of  their  native  lands,"  and 
they  raise  their  protest  at  this  supreme  hour  to  avert  what 
they  know  to  be  fraught  with  "very  grave  perils  to  the 
whole  Church."  Besides  which,  they  find,  in  looking  "at 
the  genuine  documents  of  the  Church,"  very  serious  and 
manifold  difficulties.  They  trust  the  dogma  will  not  be 
brought  before  them  in  any  shape  whatsoever,  for  "their 
soul  recoils  "  from  even  discussing  it.  Of  the  new  "  modera- 


THE  ROMAN  PASSION  DRAMA.  291 

tion  "  petition  let  us,  in  all  charity,  be  silent.  It  gives  five 
raisons  d'etre,  and  trembles  all  over.  If  we  were  in  the 
habit  of  quoting  Scripture,  we  would  mention  a  certain 
passage  which  talks  of  things  neither  hot  nor  cold,  and  what 
happens  to  them.  So  will  it  happen  unto  that  expression  of 
opinion. 


u  2 


(    293    ) 


XIV. 
ON  SEMITIC  LANGUAGES.1 


SHEMITIC  or  rather  Semitic  languages,  a  term  commonly 
applied  to  a  certain  number  of  cognate  idioms  supposed  to 
have  been  spoken  by  the  Shemites — i.e.  the  descendants  of 
Shem.  Considering,  however,  that  the  Canaanites  and  the 
Phoenicians,  the  Cushites  and  a  number  of  Arabic  tribes,  all 
derived  in  the  genealogical  list  of  Genesis  x.  from  Cham,  did 
speak  "  Shemitic,"  while  Elam  and  Lud  derived  from  Shem 
did  not,  as  far  as  our  present  information  goes  (Ashur  has 
now  the  benefit  of  a  strong  doubt) : — that  designation,  first 
advocated  by  Eichhorn  and  Schlozer,  must  be  pronounced  a 
complete  misnomer,  although  it  has  kept  its  ground  up  to 
this  moment  for  sheer  want  of  a  precise  and  accurate  term. 
It  has  supplanted  that  other  one,  used  from  the  Church 
Fathers  downward,  of  "  Oriental  Languages ;"  a  denomina- 
tion perfectly  satisfactory  to  the  "  linguistic  consciousness  " 
of  generations  that  viewed  Hebrew  as  the  mother  of  all 
languages,  and  whose  acquaintance  with  Eastern  idioms  was 
limited  to  this  and  an  imperfect  idea  of  Phoenico-Punic, 
"Chaldee"— Jewish  or  Christian — and  Arabic.  But  when, 
towards  the  end  of  the  last  century,  the^gigantic  discoveries 
in  the  realm  of  Eastern  philology  suddenly  made  these 
idioms  shrink  into  the  small  proportions  of  a  family  of 
dialects  confined  for  a  long  period  to  a  narrow  corner  of  the 
south-west  of  Asia ;  that  most  comprehensive  name  of 
Oriental  Languages  had,  notwithstanding  single  protests, 
to  be  put  aside  for  ever.  Leibnitz's  suggestion  of  "  Arabic  " 
being  too  narrow  for  the  whole  stock,  "  Syro- Arabic  "  formed 


Re-printed,  by  permission,  from  '  Kitto's  Cyclopedia  of  Historical  Literature.' 


294  ON  SEMITIC  LANGUAGES. 

in  analogy  to  "  Indo-European,"  was  proposed,  but  that  too 
has  not  been  found  generally  expressive  enough,  apart  from 
the  objection  of  its  being  apt  to  be  erroneously  understood 
in  a  linguistical  rather  than  in  a  geographical  sense.  Thus, 
in  default  of  a  better  name,  the  above  will  probably  be 
retained  for  some  time  to  come,  with  the  distinct  under- 
standing of  its  being  a  false  and  merely  conventional  ex- 
pression. 

Comparative  philology,  although,  compared  with  what  we 
now  understand  by  this  term,  a  very  embryonic  one,  exer- 
cised itself  at  an  early  period,  and  in  a  vague  manner,  in 
these  idioms.  The  resemblance  between  them  is  indeed  so 
striking  at  first  sight — its  roots  being  as  nearly  identical  as 
can  be— that  it  could  hardly  have  been  otherwise.  It  is  the 
difference  between  them  rather  than  the  similarity  that 
requires  a  closer  scrutiny  in  order  to  be  discovered  at  all. 
As  it  is,  they  do  not  vary  among  themselves  to  the  extent 
even  of  the  dialects  in  any  single  group  of  the  Indo-Euro- 
pean languages.  Yet,  as  we  shall  further  show,  the  idea 
still  entertained  by  not  a  few  scholars — viz.  of  one  of  the 
Shemitic  languages  standing  in  the  relation  of  maternity  to 
another — must  now  be  utterly  discarded,  and  all  that  can  be 
granted  to  the  speculative  "  Science  of  Language "  is  the 
possibility  of  some  kind  of  extinct  prototype,  out  of  which 
they  might  have  individually  developed.  Exactly  as  there 
is  an  "  Idea  "  (in  the  Platonic  sense)  of  a  primeval  mother 
of  all  the  Indo-European  tongues  floating  before  the  minds 
of  our  modern  investigators. 

Meanwhile,  the  existence  of  three  distinct  "  Shemitic " 
dialects  of  independent  existence,  each  bearing  a  clearly- 
marked  individuality  of  its  own  in  historical  times,  has  been 
established  beyond  all  doubt ;  and,  as  usual,  different  names 
and  divisions  have  been  proposed  for  them.  The  most 
widely  adopted  and  the  most  rational  ones  are  those  that 
are  taken  from  the  abodes  of  the  different  tribes  who  first 
spoke  them.  Thus  we  have :  a.  The  northern  or  north- 
eastern branch — i.  e.  that  of  the  whole  country  between  the 
Mediterranean  and  the  Tigris,  bordered  by  the  Taurus  in 


ON  SEMITIC  LANGUAGES.  295 

the  north ;  by  Phoenicia,  the  land  of  Israel,  and  Arabia,  in 
the  south ;  and  embracing  Syria,  Mesopotamia  (with  its 
different  "  Arams "),  and  Babylonia.  This  is  called  the 
"  Aramaic "  branch,  b.  The  idiom  spoken  by  the  inha- 
bitants of  Palestine :  "  Hebraic."  And  c.  That  of  the  south 
or  the  peninsula  of  Arabia — " Arabic;"  the  idiom  confined 
to  this  part  up  to  the  time  of  Mohammed.  Another  recent 
division  is  the  so-called  historical,  framed  in  accordance  with 
the  preponderance  of  these  special  branches  at  different 
periods.  By  this  the  Hebraic  would  assume  the  first  place, 
extending  from  the  earliest  times  of  our  knowledge  of  it 
down  to  the  sixth  century  B.C.,  when  the  Aramaic  begins  to 
take  the  lead,  and  the  field  of  Hebrew  and  Phoenician — 
the  chief  representatives  of  Hebraic  —  becomes  more  and 
more  restricted.  The  Aramaic  again  would  be  followed  by 
the  Arabic  period,  dating  from  the  time  of  Mohammed, 
when  Islam  and  its  conquests  spread  the  language  of  the 
Koran,  not  merely  over  the  whole  Shemitic  territory,  but 
over  a  vast  portion  of  the  inhabited  globe.  But  this  last 
division  is  so  arbitrary,  not  to  say  fallacious — for  there  is 
every  reason  to  suppose  that  "Aramaic"  flourished  vigorously 
in  its  own  sphere  during,  if  not  before  the  whole  Hebraic 
period,  and  again  that  "  Hebraic "  (as  Phoenician)  kept  its 
ground  simultaneously  with  the  later  "  Aramaic  "  period — 
that  its  own  authors  had  to  hedge  it  in  with  many  and 
variegated  restrictions.  So  that  it  is,  in  fact,  reduced 
simply  to  a  "  subjective "  notion  or  method,  not  further  to 
be  considered.  But  we  further  protest  all  the  more  strongly 
against  it,  as  it  might  easily  lead  to  the  belief  that  the 
one  idiom  gradually  merged  into  the  other — Hebrew  into 
Aramaic,  Aramaic  into  Arabic,  much  as  Latin  did  into  the 
Volgare — which  would  be  utterly  contrary  to  fact.  The 
vulgar  Arabic  spoken  now  in  Palestine  no  more  developed 
out  of  Aramaic,  than  the  English  spoken  in  Ireland  de- 
veloped out  of  Celtic  or  "  Fenian." 

Sinking  for  a  moment  the  distinctions  between  these  dif- 
ferent Shemitic  idioms,  and  viewing  them  as  one  compact 
Unity,  more  especially  in  comparison  with  that  other  most 


296  ON  SEMITIC  LANGUAGES. 

important   family,   the   Indo-European   languages,   we   are 
struck,  as  were  the  Church  Fathers  and  the  medieval  gram- 
marians, with  more  signs  of  primeval  affinity  than   their 
mere  identity  of  word-roots.     And  indeed,  if  this  had  con- 
stituted our  sole  proof  and  criterion,  the.  circle  of  relation- 
ship would  have  had  to  be  widened  to  an  astonishingly  large 
extent.     One  of  the  chief  and  indisputable  characteristics 
of  Shemitic  has,  since  the  days  of  Ohajug,  been  held  to  be 
their  triliteralness.     That  is,  that  every  word  consists,  in  the 
first  instance,  merely  of  three  consonants,  which  form,  so  to 
say,  the  soul  of  the  idea  to  be  expressed  by  that  word ;  while 
the  respective  special  modifications  are  produced  by  certain 
vowels  or  additional  letters.     Some  of  the  latter  have,  in  a 
few  instances,  remained  stationary,  but  even  then  they  are 
always  clearly  distinguishable  from  the  root,  as  mere  casual 
accessories.     But  these  very  additional  and   only  casually 
annexed  consonants  have  led  investigation   to  doubt  that 
time-hallowed  axiom  of  triliteralness.     So  far,  it  has  been 
said,  from  this  being  a  primeval  inborn  attribute  of  these 
idioms,  nay,  a  sign  of  their  having  been  handed  down  (espe- 
cially in  the  Hebraic  form)  as  nearly  like   their   original 
prototype  as  can  be :  it  is  rather  a  sign  of  a  very  advanced 
stage  of  development  in  which  they  all  participated,  and 
which  renders  them  almost  as  unlike  their  primitive  type  as 
any  foreign  group  of  languages.     There  must  have  been  a 
time,  it  is  contended,  when  not  three,  but  two  radicals  with 
an  intermediate  vowel — a  monosyllable  in  fact— formed  the 
staple  of  some  original  "  Shemitic  "  language.     Out  of  this 
they  may  have  sprung  simultaneously,  by  one  of  those  lin- 
guistic revolutions  consequent  upon  sudden  historical  events 
— emigrations  and  the   like.     Not  indeed  in  the  sharply- 
outlined  form  in  which  we  now  find  them,  but  predisposed 
to  their  development  of  linguistic  individual  peculiarities : 
one  arid  all  however  bent  upon  the  extension  of  their  mono- 
syllabic root  into  a  triliteral — in  a  way  that  the  consonant 
prefixed  should  express  what  nuances  an  advancing  civilisa- 
tion found  it  necessary  to  distinguish  in  every  one  of  the 
scanty   roots    forming    the    common    stock   of    the   whole 


ON  SEMITIC  LANGUAGES.  297 

Shemitic  family.  These  biliterals,  to  which  the  roots  thus 
are  traced  back,  are  nearly  all  of  an  onomatopoetical  nature ; 
that  is,  they  are  imitative  sounds  of  a  primitive  kind.  As 
long  as  they  were  used,  the  untold  grammatical  distinctions 
of  an  advanced  human  stage — flexions,  categories,  construc- 
tions— could,  if  they  existed  at  all,  only  have  existed  in  an 
embryonic  state. — The  authors  and  defenders  of  this  inge- 
nious conjecture — the  unexpected  use  of  which  we  shall 
presently  show — fail,  however,  to  answer  the  question,  when 
and  how  this  most  extraordinary  step  from  two  to  three 
letters  could  so  suddenly  and  simultaneously  have  been 
introduced  as  must  needs  be  presupposed.  Not  one  of  the 
monosyllabic  languages  known  to  us  has  ever  changed  its 
roots  in  this  extraordinary  manner,  and  the  adduced  analogy 
of  the  quadriliterals  having  been  formed  from  the  triliterals 
is  not  to  the  point. 

Yet  this  analytical  discovery  of  monosyllabic  bases,  if  it 
does  not  assist  us  as  much  as  was  expected  in  the  solution  of 
the  many  difficult  problems  offered  by  the  Shemitic  idioms 
when  compared  among  themselves,  was  made  to  support  a 
much  more  sweeping  theory — viz.  that  of  an  original  affinity, 
nay  identity,  between  Shemitic  and  Aryan,  at  some  most 
remote  period.  A  period,  in  fact,  when  Aryans  and  Shern- 
ites  dwelt  in  the  same  homesteads ;  a  period  anterior  to  the 
final  development  of  the  roots  of  their — common — rudi- 
mentary language,  and,  of  course,  long  anterior  to  gram- 
mars :  and  therefore  also  called  the  antegrammatical  stage. 
And  this  theory  has  been  advocated  and  warmly  defended 
from  Schlegel  down  to  our  day  by  some  of  the  most  emi- 
nently Aryan  and  Shemitic  scholars.  Nay,  even  the  absurd 
extreme  to  which  it  has  been  carried  by  Delitzsch  and  Fiirst 
did  not  bring  its  original  form,  into  discredit.  These  two 
scholars,  to  wit,  do  not  stop  at  the  affinity,  but  assume  a 
downright  relationship  of  parentage  between  the  two  groups. 
Their  proofs  and  their  specimens  of  words,  however,  do  not 
sufficiently  support  their  hypothesis.  For  the  most  part  arbi- 
trary to  an  immense  degree,  and  erroneous  in  their  applica- 
tion, they  resolve  themselves  either  into  accidental  siini- 


298  ON  SEMITIC  LANGUAGES. 

larities  or  into  such  affinities  as  are  easily  explained  by 
late  importations  (the  existence  of  which  has  never  been, 
doubted)  from  one  group  into  the  other — caused  by  the 
constant  contact  between  the  two  families  in  prehistorical  as 
well  as  historical  times.  Quite  apart  from  that  other  most 
unfortunate  accident  of  their  trying  to  prove  their  case  by 
certain  Talmudical  and  Syriac  words  which  bore  an  un- 
deniable family-likeness  to  certain  Greek  and  Latin  words 
of  similar  meanings ;  but  which  were  really  words  taken 
from  Greek  and  Latin  in  late  Eoman  times,  and  spelt  in  a 
slightly  disguised  Shemitic  fashion. 

We  cannot  in  this  place  further  enlarge  upon  a  point 
which  trenches  so  nearly  upon  those  obscure  problems  about 
the  origin  of  language  in  general,  that  prominently  occupy  the 
minds  of  scientific  inquirers  in  these  days.  Whatever  be  the 
final  issue,  if  ever  there  be  one,  we  cannot  but  simply  state 
the  fact  that,  grammatically,  there  cannot  be  a  more  radical 
difference  than  that  which  exists  between  the  two  groups,, 
while  lexically  or  etymologically  a  certain  affinity  between 
them  is  perfectly  incontestable  even  to  the  most  critical  and 
unprejudiced  eye.  However  different  the  conclusions  they 
draw,  on  these  points  even  the  most  extreme  schools  agree* 
But  whether,  as  some  hold,  there  was  once  a  stage  where 
there  was  no  grammar  at  all,  or  whether  there  was  a  kind  of 
grammar  which  contained  the  two  subsequently  so  widely 
varying  forms  of  it  in  nuee  ;  or  again  whether  the  two  races 
ever  did  inhabit  the  same  soil  at  all,  and  whether  the  pheno- 
menon of  the  lexical  property  common  to  both  may  be 
explained  on  the  one  hand  by  certain  linguistical  laws  that 
unchangingly  rule  body  and  soul  of  humanity,  and  produce 
everywhere  the  same  onomatopoetical  sounds,  the  origin  of 
which  we  may  or  may  not  be  able  to  trace  in  our  present 
stage,  or  on  the  other  hand  by  a  certain  interchange  of 
ideas  and  objects  at  different  periods  of  their  existence : — we 
shall  leave  undiscussed  in  this  place,  content  to  have  shown 
the  different  standpoints.  The  most  remarkable,  and  perhaps 
the  least  easily-accounted-for  phenomenon,  is  the  striking 
similarity  of  the  pronouns  and  numerals,  not  only  in  Indo- 


ON  SEMITIC  LANGUAGES.  299' 

Germanic  and  Shemitic,  but  even  in  Coptic,  which  for  this 
and  other  reasons  has  indeed  been  held  by  some  to  be  both 
lexically  and  grammatically  the  Chamite  link  between  the 
two.  With  what  small  show  of  reason,  however,  we  cannot 
stop  to  explain. 

Among  these  last-mentioned  curious  mutual  interchanges 
that  took  place  in  what  we  may  call — comparatively  speak- 
ing— historical  times,  we  find  first  of  all  certain  Egyptian 
words  that  have  early  crept  into  Hebrew,  partly  possibly 
before  the  sojourn  at  Goshen.  Thus  we  find  ifTN*  "V)N>  n^"lSJ, 
1"QN,  perhaps  also  ran  Hlin,  and  others,  some  of  them  still 
to  be  found  in  Coptic,  and  not  explained  by  Shemitic 
etymology.  On  the  other  hand,  certain  words,  chiefly 
designations  of  animals,  are  found  in  Coptic  which  are  taken 
from  Shemitic — fej,  -)tco,  ^N,  ^3,  etc.  Next  stand  those 
verbal  importations  from  India,  brought  home  by  the  trading 
expeditions  to  "  Ophir  " — e.  g.  D^HK»  ^p-  T13»  DD1D?  and  the 
like — which  are  easily  traceable  to  Sanscrit  and  its  dialects. 
[And  here  we  would  draw  attention  to  the  word  ]v  (Yavan), 
the  Shemitic  designation  for  the  Greeks,  which  seems  to  be 

the  Sanscrit  ^J^^frf  Yuvajana  =  Lat.  juvenis — i.e.  a  younger 
branch  (of  emigrants  probably).]  Strangely  enough,  while 
the  Greek  was  enriched  to  an  extraordinary  extent  by  the 
Shemitic  traders,  in  proportion  to  the  immense  variety  of 
articles  then  imported  into  Greek  ports  ;  the  Greek  idiom  is 
generally  supposed  to  have  added  next  to  nothing  to  the 
Shemitic  before  the  time  of  Alexander.  Vegetable  sub- 
stances, precious  stones,  materials  for  garments,  the  gar- 
ments themselves,  animals,  musical  instruments,  weights, 
and  last  not  least,  the  letters  of  the  alphabet — all  these, 
together  with  their  native  names,  were  imported  by  Shem- 
ites  (Phoenicians)  into  the  Greek  territory  and  language, 
when  they  first  emerged  from  their  narrow  West-Asiatic 
homes  and  opened  up  a  trade  with  the  whole  world.  The 
use  of  many  of  these  words  in  the  fragments  of  the  most 
ancient  Greek  literature  that  has  survived  shows  them  to 
have  been  at  the  earliest  period  already  part  and  parcel  of 
that  idiom  to  such  an  extent  that  even  their  origin  had  been. 


300  ON  SEMITIC  LANGUAGES. 

completely  forgotten,  cf.   mm  UO-O-WTTO?  ;   DttO,   /3d\cra^ov  ; 


,  tcwvpa,  etc.  Whether,  however,  many  of  the  hitherto 
unexplained  Shemitic  words  may  or  may  not  be  Greek,  and 
date  from  exactly  the  same  period,  and  their  importation  be 
owing  to  the  same  causes,  we  cannot  here  discuss. 

And  leaving  altogether  the  ever-shifting  quicksands  of 
this  lexical  affinity  between  the  two  families,  which,  as  we 
said,  cannot  but  be  accepted  in  the  main  as  an  established 
fact,  we  come  to  the  more  safe  and  easy  ground  of  their 
grammatical  difference.  This  may  be  summed  up  briefly 
in  the  above-mentioned  present  triliteral  nature  of  the 
Shemitic  roots  ;  and  in  the  peculiarity  of  the  three  con- 
sonants that  constitute  them  representing  the  idea,  and 
the  ever-changing  vowels  added  to  them  its  ever-changing 
aspects,  varieties,  and  modifications.  The  consonants  of  the 
Shemitic  root  form,  in  this  wise,  without  the  accessory 
vowels,  an  unpronounceable  word,  while  the  Indo-Germanic 
root  or  word  is  complete  and  self-sufficient.  Among  further 
most  vital  differences  between  the  two,  we  may  point  to  the 
totally  different  way  of  the  declensions  of  their  nouns  (cf. 
the  Shemitic  status  constructus  and  emphaticus),  the  nume- 
rous verbal  modes  utterly  unknown  to  the  Aryan  conjuga- 
tion, the  absence  of  a  definite  tense  in  Shemitic,  the  inability 
of  the  latter  of  forming  compound  nouns  or  new  nuances  of 
verbs  by  prepositions,  and  the  like.  All  of  which  cripples 
the  action  of  the  Shemitic  idioms  to  no  small  extent,  while 
the  unlimited  power  of  forming  words  upon  words  at  the 
spur  of  the  moment,  and  the  marvellous  flexibility  of  the 
verb  and  the  precision  of  its  tenses,  endow  the  Aryan  with 
unequalled  wealth,  power,  and  elegance. 

This  most  fittingly  leads  us  to  the  question  of  the  respec- 
tive "  ages  "  of  these  two  prominent  families  of  languages. 
Not  that  to  the  one  or  to  the  other  is  to  be  assigned  a 
longer,  more  ancient  term  of  existence  —  for  this  notion  of 
the  direct  parentage  is,  as  we  said,  confined  to  bygone  un- 
scientific centuries,  and  to  the  Delitzsch-Furst  school:  if 
there  be  one.  But  it  may  fairly  be  asked  —  and  this  is  by 


ON  SEMITIC  LANGUAGES.  301 

no  means  a  barren  speculation — which  may  have  retained 
its   ancient   stamp   with   greater  fidelity,   and   which  thus 
reflects  best  the  shape  of  its  original  ?     And  there  can  be 
but  one  answer.     The  more  simple,  child-like,  primitive  of 
the  two  is,  without  any  doubt,  the  Shemitic.     Abstraction 
and  metaphysics,  philosophy   and  speculation,  as   we  find 
them  in  the  Aryan,  are  not  easily  expressed  in  an  idiom 
bereft  of  all  real  syntactic  structure ;  bereft  further  of  that 
infinite  variety  of  little  words,  particles,  conjunctions,  aux- 
iliary verbs,  etc.,  which,  ready  for  any  emergency,  like  so 
many  small  living  links,  imperceptibly  bind  word  to  word,, 
phrase  to  phrase,  and  period  to  period :  which  indeed  are 
the  very  life  and  soul  of  what  is  called  Construction.     This 
want  of  exactness  and  precision,  moreover,  naturally  inherent 
in   idioms   represented   by   words  of  dumb   sounds,  whose 
meaning  must  be  determined  according  to  circumstances  by 
a  certain  limited  number  of  shifting  vowels,  whose  conjuga- 
tions, though  varied  and  flexible  to  an  extraordinary  degree, 
yet  lack  a  proper  distinction  between  the  past  and  the  future 
(cf.  the  Hebrew  "  perfect  "  and  "  aorist,"  which  lend  them- 
selves to  almost  any  tense  between  past  and  future).     There 
certainly  is — who  can  doubt  it  ?— notwithstanding  all  these 
shortcomings,  a  strength,  a  boldness,  a  picturesqueness,  a 
delicacy  of  feeling   and   expression   about   these   Shemitic 
idioms  which  marks  them,  one  and  all,  as  the  property  of  a 
poetically,  not  to  say  "  prophetically  "  inspired  race.     But 
compare  with  this  the  suppleness  of  Aryan  languages  and 
that  boundless  supply  of  aids  that  enable  them  to  produce 
the  most  telling  combinations  at  the  spur  of  the  moment ; 
their  exquisitely  consummate   and   refined   syntactical  de- 
velopment, that  can  change,  and  shift,  and  alter  the  position 
of  word,  and  phrase,  and  sentence,  and  period,  to  almost  any 
place,  so  as  to  give  force  to  any  part  of  their  speech.     With 
all  these,  and  a  thousand  other  faculties  and  capabilities, 
they  might  certainly  at  first  sight  almost  lead  one  to  the 
belief  that  they  must  have  grown  upon  another  stock — the 
Shemitic — and  outgrown  it.    But  discarding  this  unscientific 
notion,  it  cannot  be  denied  that  they  are  the  "  younger  "  of 


302  ON  SEMITIC  LANGUAGES. 

the  two.  The  stage  of  Realism,  as  represented  by  the 
former,  must  naturally  have  preceded  that  of  Idealism,  of 
which  the  Aryan  alone  is  the  proper  type  and  expression. 
The  Shemitic  use  of  the  materialistic,  "sensual,"  term  for 
physiological  and  psychological  phenomena  must  be  older 
than  the  formation  and  common  usage  of  the  Aryan  abstract 
term.  The  name  for  the  outward  tangible  impression  which 
must  have  everywhere  been  identical  originally  with  that 
of  the  sensation  or  idea  connected  with  it,  has  remained 
identical  in  the  Shemitic  from  its  earliest  stage  to  its  final 
development.  It  is,  in  fact,  this  unity  of  idea  and  expres- 
sion, which,  above  all  other  symptoms,  forces  us  irresistibly 
to  place  the  Shemitic  into  the  first  rank  as  regards  "  anti- 
quity," such  as  we  explained  it ;  that  is,  of  its  having  re- 
tained the  closest  likeness  to  some  original  form  of  human 
speech  that  preceded  both  the  other  family  of  language  and 
itself. 

The  signs  characteristic  of  the  common  Shemitic  stock 
have  been  touched  upon  already  in  the  foregoing  para- 
graphs, as  far  as  they  could  be  brought  to  bear  upon  the 
questions  under  consideration.  To  these  we  may  now  add 
the  peculiarity  of  there  being  but  two  genders  in  Shemitic, 
and  that  these  are  also  distinguished  in  the  second  and  third 
person  of  the  verb;  that,  further,  the  genitive  is  formed 
by  the  juxtaposition  merely  of  the  two  respective  nouns, 
slightly  changed  in  their  vocalisation,  while  prepositions 
principally  form  the  other  cases,  and  suffixes  indicate  the 
oblique  cases  of  pronouns. 

We  shall  now,  as  summarily  as  possible,  speak  of  the 
Shemitic  idioms  in  their  special  branches,  and  endeavour  to 
point  out  as  we  proceed  whatever  is  best  fit  to  throw  a  light 
on  the  many  questions  respecting  their  comparative  age, 
development,  and  history,  referring  always  for  fuller  details 
and  points  beyond  our  present  task  to  the  several  articles 
devoted  to  them  individually  in  the  course  of  this  work. 
The  first  and  to  the  Biblical  student  most  important  of  these 
idioms,  is  the  middle  Shemitic,  Hebraic,  or  Hebrew,  the 
language  of  the  Hebrew  people  during  the  time  of  their 


ON  SEMITIC  LANGUAGES.  303 


independence  in  Caanan.  The  term  Hebrew  ("Hiy)  itself 
has  been  derived  by  some  from  Eber,  the  father  of  Peleg 
and  Joktan  ;  by  others  from  the  appellative  -Qy,  sell,  nrun 
—i.e.  the  other  side  of  the  river  Euphrates,  whence  the 
Abrahamites  immigrated  into  Canaan  (LXX.  6  Trepa-n??). 
This  double  derivation  is  already  mentioned  in  Theodoretus  ; 
other  derivations  are  from  ^xc,  to  explain,  etc.  No  less 
have  Iberians,  Arabians,  and  other  words  of  similar  sound 
been  pressed  into  the  service.  The  canonical  books  of  the 
O.  T.  do  not  use  that  term  to  designate  the  language,  which 
they  call  variously  ^3  JiS)^  language  of  Canaan,  in  contra- 
distinction to  Egyptian;  and  JTTJiT  Jewish,  in  contra- 
distinction to  Aramaic  (or  Ashdodian).  It  first  occurs  in 
Ecclesiasticus  and  Josephus,  as  eftpcucrrt,  <y\wTTa  rwv 
fE/3paiW.  In  the  N.  T.,  eppaurrl,  e/3pol?  StaAe/cro?,  means 
Aramaean,  in  contradistinction  to  Greek.  Philo,  ignorant 
of  the  language,  calls  it  <y\a>a-o-av  ^a\^alKrjv.  When 
Aramaic  had,  after  the  return  from  the  captivity,  become 
the  popular  tongue,  and  Hebrew  was  chiefly  confined  to 
temple,  synagogue  and  academy,  it  received  the  name 
holy  language,  or  more  accurately,  /vi  ]wb 
language  of  the  sanctuary.  One  of  the  many 
vexed  and  barren  questions  connected  with  it  is  that  regard- 
ing its  original  soil  —  that  is,  whether  Abraham  imported  it 
as  his  own  native  tongue  into  Canaan,  or  whether,  finding 
it  there,  he  and  his  descendants  merely  adopted  it.  Those 
who  held  or  hold  Hebrew  to  be,  if  not  the  oldest  of  all 
languages,  the  oldest  at  least  of  the  Shemitic  idioms,  natu- 
rally decide  for  the  former  view,  since  it  could  not  but  have 
remained  the  traditional  inheritance  of  the  chosen  race.  The 
defenders  of  the  latter  view,  on  the  other  hand,  point  to  the 
circumstance  that  Abraham  came  from  Mesopotamia,  where 
Aramaic  was  the  common  idiom  used  —  e.g.  by  Laban,  the 
grandnephew  of  Abraham  (Gen.  xxxi.  47),  as  a  translation 
of  Jacob's  Hebrew  ;  further,  to  its  denomination  "  language 
of  Canaan,"  the  geographical  position  of  which  country, 
between  the  Aramaeans  and  the  Arabs,  would  seem  exactly 
to  correspond  to  the  linguistical  position  of  their  respective 


304  OX  SEMITIC  LANGUAGES. 

tongues.  Again,  the  close  resemblance  of  the  Phoenician  to- 
the  Hebrew,  and  certain  proper  names  of  Canaan,  such  as 
p"BP^D»  "jte'lNj  an(l  the  like>  are  brought  forward  in 
support  of  this  second  theory.  Yet  there  is  a  third — viz. 
that  the  idiom  itself  may  first  have  been  fully  developed  by 
the  Abraharnides  in  Canaan,  who  may  have  neither  brought 
it  nor  found  it  there,  but  from  a  fusion  of  their  own 
original  "  Aramaic  "  and  the  Canaanitish  language  spoken 
in  their  new  homes  produced  it  and  developed  it. 

Intimately  connected  with  this  question  is  the  more 
general  one  as  to  the  age  of  this  language  itself.  That  it 
was  the  aboriginal  tongue  from  which  all  others  have  been 
derived  is,  as  we  hinted  before,  an  opinion  not  in  accordance 
with  the  uncontested  results  of  modern  philology.  The 
argument  of  the  etymology  of  certain  proper  names  in  the 
early  documents  of  Genesis  QlN  from  J1D1N,  earth  ;  nin  from 
>H  life,  etc.),  was  already  disposed  of  by  Grotius,  who  held 
that  Moses  may  have  translated  them  simply  into  Hebrew 
according  to  the  genius  of  this  language,  and  by  Clericus, 
who  pointed  out  how  these  names  were  chiefly  appellative 
names,  to  a  great  extent  given  after  the  events  had  taken 
place  to  which  they  point.  Yet  it  was  further  argued,  many 
names  (from  Kain  to  Lemech  principally)  allow  of  no  ety- 
mology whatsoever,  therefore  this  must  be  the  original 
tongue  of  all  men.  Such  most  primitive  arguments,  how- 
ever, disposed  of,  we  are  still  left  in  the  utmost  uncertainty : 
and,  in  the  absence  of  documents  and  testimonies,  we  must 
resign  ourselves  to  give  up  all  hopes  of  ever  arriving  at 
more  than  vague  theories  on  the  subject.  Much  more  to 
the  purpose,  however,  is  the  attempt  to  find  out  the  relative 
position,  of  Hebrew  among  its  sister  idioms.  The  oldest 
Shemitic  documents  that  have  survived  are  in  Hebrew,  and 
in  them  we  find  this  language  and  its  structure  fully  de- 
veloped ;  so  fully  indeed,  that  what  progress  we  do  perceive 
in  it  is  a  downward  progress :  the  beginning  of  decay.  It 
further  bears  so  distinctive  a  character  of  high  antiquity, 
originality,  simplicity,  and  purity — the  etymology  of  its 
grammatical  forms  is  still  at  tinges  so  clearly  visible  in  it 


ON  SEMITIC  LANGUAGES.  305 

and  it  alone,  while  it  has  disappeared  in  the  other  dialects 
— that  if  not  the  oldest  absolutely,  it  is  certainly  the  one 
Shemitic  tongue  which  seems  to  come  nearest  to  the  one 
primitive  type  of  the  Shemitic  idioms  now  generally  as- 
sumed. With  regard  to  its  lexical  and  grammatical  position 
it  occupies  that  mean  between  the  Aramaic  as  the  poorest, 
and  the  Arabic  as  the  richest.  Its  principal  wealth  and 
strength,  however,  lie  in  its  religious  and  ethical  element. 
Whatever  may  have  been  lost  of  its  documents  and  the 
words  which  they  contained,  that  which  remains  is  sufficient 
to  show  the  peculiar  tendency  and  character  of  its  voca- 
lbulary.  There  are,  e.g.,  fourteen  different  terms  for  "ask, 
inquire,"  twenty-four  for  "  keep  the  Law,"  nine  for  "  trust  in 
God,"  &c.  Of  foreign  elements  we  chiefly  discover  those 
original  terms  for  foreign  objects,  persons,  or  dignities,  intro- 
duced from  the  Egyptian  idiom  during  the  Mosaic  period, 
and  from  the  Assyrian,  Babylonian,  Persian,  &c.,  at  later 
times.  Few  traces  are  found  of  dialectical  differences — 
although  there  are  some  of  a  vulgar  idiom  (]£,  PTD,  Manna, 
&c.)  —  while  on  the  other  hand  the  difference  between 
prosaic  and  poetical  diction  is  most  striking.  Fuller  forms 
in  flexions,  suffixes,  peculiar  formations  of  nouns,  the  use  of 
grand  epithets,  and  above  all,  rare  words  (mostly  Aramaic), 
are  the  distinguishing  characteristic  of  its  poetry.  It  loves 
to  draw  for  peculiarity  of  expression  both  upon  the  ancient 
and  partly  obsolete  stock  of  words,  and  upon  the  language 
of  the  common  people:  no  less  than  upon  dialects  of 
Idiomatic  affinity.  Other  poetical  peculiarities  are  the 
omission  of  the  relative  or  the  use  of  the  demonstrative  in 
its  stead,  the  omission  of  the  article,  and  the  like. 

There  is,  however  insignificant  the  changes  undergone  by 
the  Hebrew  and  the  Shemitic  languages  in  general  be,  as 
compared  with  those  of  Indo-Germanic — and  the  reasons  for 
this  stability  of  the  former  are  founded  in  their  whole  cha- 
racter and  history — yet  a  certain  change  noticeable  in  the 
Hebrew,  as  preserved  in  the  O.  T.  Whether  this  be  due  to 
the  difference  of  the  ages  in  which  the  several  books  were 
written,  or  to  peculiarities  of  the  respective  writers,  as  some 

x 


306  ON  SEMITIC  LANGUAGES. 

hold,  seems  hardly  to  allow  of  a  doubt.     Whatever  may  be 
owing  to  provincialism,  or  individuality,  or  even  to  the  more 
solemn   and   therefore   different   style   of  poetry — and  we 
cannot  always  distinguish  these  things  as  clearly  as  we  could 
wish — enough   remains  to  show  a   gradual  and  important 
difference  between  the  earlier  and  the  later  stages  of  the 
language  in  the  earlier  and  later  books  of  the  0.  T.    Certain 
corresponding  periods — two,  three,  or  more — have  accord- 
ingly been  assumed.     Thus  some  distinguish  between  the 
time  before  and  that  after  the  exile ;  others  between  Mosaic, 
Davidic,  Solomonic  periods,  and  the  period  after  the  exile. 
Yet  these  divisions  are  of  a  most  precarious  nature.     It  is 
quite  true  that  certain  words  and  forms  which  occur  in  the 
Pentateuch  do  not  occur  again  until  very  late.     That  again, 
terms  used  at  first  in  prose  occur  afterwards  only  in  poetry, 
or  have    completely  changed    their   forms   and    meanings. 
Further  it  is  undoubtedly  true   that   during  the  Davidian 
time,  and   that  of  his  son,    the  influence   of  the   schools 
founded  by  Samuel,  and  the  influence  of  two  such  eminent 
kings  and  their  brilliant  literary  achievement,  together  with 
the  flourishing  condition  of  the  country  itself,  could  not  but 
make  itself  felt  also  in  a  generally  higher  and  finer  cultiva- 
tion of  style,  diction,  and  language,  throughout  the  writings 
of  the  period.     It  must  also  be  allowed  that  the  Assyrian 
invasion,  and  all  its  consequences — principally  the  spread  of 
Aramaean  in  Palestine — corrupted   the   purity  of  the   lan- 
guage, blunted  its  sense  of  grammatical  niceties,  and  caused 
those  who  most  desperately  clung  to  the  ancient  style  to 
introduce,  instead  of  the   living  elements  of  former  days, 
dead  archaisms.    But  we  doubt  whether  any  genuine  division 
can  be  instituted,  as  long  at  least  as  the  now  prevailing  un- 
certainty as  to  the  date  of  certain  parts  of  the  Scripture  will 
last — and  we  fear  it  will  not  soon  be  removed. 

Yague  though  our  notions  about  the  time  when  Hebrew 
was  first  spoken  be,  we  have  the  clearest  dates  as  to  the 
time  of  its  disappearance  as  a  living  language.  When  at 
the  return  from  the  exile  all  the  ancient  institutions  were 
restored,  it  was  found  that  the  people  no  longer  understood 


ON  SEMITIC  LANGUAGES.  307 

their  own  Scriptures  in  their  vernacular,  and  a  translation 
into  Aramaic  (out  of  which  sprang  the  Targums)  had  to 
be  added,  "so  that  they  might  understand  them."  That 
Aramaic  soon  became,  as  we  said,  the  language  of  the 
schools  and  of  public  worship  almost  exclusively,  some- 
what like  the  Latin  in  the  Middle  Ages. 

Closely  allied  to  the  Hebrew,  as  already  observed  by 
Augustine,  Jerome,  and  others,  is  the  Phoenician,  which  in 
our  own  days,  with  the  increasing  number  of  monuments 
brought  to  light,  has  risen  to  high  importance.  No  lan- 
guage of  antiquity  perhaps  was  so  widely  spread.  The 
whole  ancient  world  almost  being  the  vantage-ground  of 
Phoenician  enterprise,  the  language  was  naturally  dissemi- 
nated over  the  widest  possible  space,  and  the  natural  conse- 
quence was,  that  gradually  yielding  to  foreign  influence  it 
did  not  keep  up  its  original  purity,  and  became  in  proportion 
more  and  more  divergent  from  the  Hebrew.  Characteristic 
to  it  are  certain  inflexions  it  retained,  which  were  long 
obsolete  in  Hebrew,  no  less  than  certain  words  and  phrases, 
considered  archaic  in  Hebrew,  but  of  common  occurrence  in 
Phoenician.  Again,  there  is  a  tendency  towards  a  darkening, 
so  to  say,  of  vowels — e.g.  the  Hebrew  a  becomes  occasionally 
o,  the  e  becomes  *  or  y,  the  i  changes  into  y  or  u,  the  o 
into  u,  and  the  like.  The  gutturals  are  at  times  inter- 
changed, consonants  are  assimilated  or  omitted,  &c.  A 
grammar  of  this  idiom  has  not  been  attempted  yet,  nor  does 
the  knowledge  of  the  inflexions  which  we  possess  offer  suffi- 
cient material  for  a  systematic  investigation  at  this  present 
moment.  A  few  items  towards  it,  however,  are,  that  the 
Hebrew  termination  of  the  nominative  in  ah  becomes  at  in 
Phoenician,  that  the  formation  of  the  pronoun  differs,  that 
there  is  a  greater  variety  of  genitive  forms  in  the  Phoenician, 
&c.  The  abundance  of  Aramaism  noticed  in  the  language 
may  have  crept  in  at  a  late  period  only.  The  surviving 
remnants  consist  merely  of  inscriptions  on  coins  and  stones, 
chiefly  discovered  in  their  colonies.  Of  a  written  literature 
nothing  has  come  down  to  us,  save  a  few  proper  names  and 
texts  imbedded  in  a  fearfully  mutilated  state  in  Greek  and 

x  2 


308  OX  SEMITIC  LANGUAGES. 

Koman  writings,  and  a  few  scraps  of  extracts  from  their 
writers,  translated  into  Greek,  but  of  extremely  doubtful 
genuineness.  From  all  we  can  gather  there  must  have 
existed  an  immense  number  of  Phoenician  writings  at  a 
remote  period  of  antiquity :  chiefly  of  a  theological  or  theo- 
gonical  nature,  whose  authors  were  identified  with  the  gods 
themselves.  From  the  Phoenician  is  to  be  distinguished 
the  Punic,  a  corrupted  dialect  of  it,  spoken  in  the  western 
colonies  up  to  the  seventh  century  A.D.,  while  the  mother- 
tongue  had  completely  died  out  on  its  native  soil  as  early  as 
the  third  century.  There  was  even  a  translation  of  the 
Bible  extant  in  Punic,  but  not  a  trace  of  it  has  remained. 

We  now  turn  to  the  northern  Shemitic  or  " Aramaic" 
branch,  spoken  between  the  Mediterranean  and  the  Tigris ; 
north  of  Phoenicia,  the  land  of  the  Israelites,  and  Arabia ; 
and  south  of  the  Taurus ;  a  dialect  poorer  both  grammati- 
cally and  phonetically  than  either  of  the  two  others.  Its 
peculiarities,  moreover,  are  much  of  the  nature  of  provincial- 
isms, or  perhaps  even  point  to  a  stage  of  corruption  of  lan- 
guage. Thus  it  is  not  the  change  of  vowel  which  produces 
the  passive  mood,  but  a  special  prefix  (jltf);  the  article 
does  not  begin  but  end  the  word  ;  the  sibilants  are  hardened 
(cf.  1!T7,  gold ;  *nto,  rock  ;  aiD,  return),  etc.  The  earliest 
trace  of  its  distinction  from  the  Hebrew  is  the  well-known 
translation  of  Jacob's  T^  into  NJiniTO  IX-  A  very  difficult 
question,  and  one,  we  fear,  not  to  be  solved  before  further 
progress-  in  our  knowledge  of  cuneiform  literature  has  been 
made,  is  that  of  the  language  of  Babylonia.  That  Aramaic 
was  spoken  there  is  undoubted,  but  whether  it  was  the  only 
idiom  prevalent,  as  in  Syria  and  Mesopotamia,  or  whether 
the  Chaldseans  who  had  conquered  Babylonia  had  brought 
with  them  another  non-Shemitic  (Medo-Persian)  language 
"  akin  to  the  Assyrian,"  has  been  the  subject  of  long  dis- 
cussions. But  even  granted  that  "  Chaldean  "  was  akin  to 
Assyrian,  it  need  not  therefore  by  any  means  have  been  a 
non-Shernitic  language.  It  is,  on  the  contrary,  now  assumed 
almost  unanimously  to  be  Shemitic;  how  far,  however,  it 
differs  from  the  other  dialects,  and  in  particular  what  may 


ON  SEMITIC  LANGUAGES.  309 

have  been  its  direct  or  indirect  influence  upon  Aramaic,  we 
cannot  here  investigate. 

Considering  the  vast  importance  of  cuneiform  studies — 
for  Shemitic  in  general,  and  for  our  knowledge  of  Aramaic 
or  "  Chaldee  "  in  particular — we  shall  try  briefly  to  sum  up 
the  results  hitherto  arrived  at  in  this  youngest  of  philo- 
logical and  palaBographical  sciences.  There  are  three  prin- 
cipal kinds  of  cuneiform — a  mode  of  writing,  be  it  observed 
by  the  way,  principally  used  for  monumental  records :  a 
kind  of  cursive  being  used  for  records  of  minor  importance — 
called  respectively  the  Persian,  Median,  and  Assyrian.  The 
first,  which  seems  to  have  died  out  370  B.C.,  has  from  thirty- 
nine  to  forty -four  alphabetical  signs  or  combinations,  which 
never  consist  of  more  than  five  wedges.  Its  words  are 
divided  by  oblique  strokes.  The  language  it  represents  is 
Indo-Germanic — the  mother  of  Zend.  The  second,  variously 
called  Median,  Scythic,  &c.,  and  supposed  to  represent  a 
Turanian  dialect,  is  the  least  known  and  the  least  important. 
An  alphabet  of  about  one  hundred  syllabic  combinations  has 
been  constructed  out  of  the  very  scanty  remains  in  which  it 
appears.  The  third  and  most  momentous  kind,  the  Assyrian, 
seems  to  have  spread  widest.  Not  only  in  Babylon  and 
Nineveh,  on  the  Euphrates  and  Tigris,  but  in  Egypt  itself 
has  it  been  found.  More  than  four  hundred  combinations, 
phonetic,  syllabic,  and  ideographic,  have  been  distinguished 
in  it,  although  our  knowledge  is  limited  to  a  proportionately 
small  number  of  them.  But  the  difficulties  offered  here  are 
of  the  most  extraordinary  kind.  The  spelling  is  varied  con- 
stantly, the  signs  occasionally  represent  different  sounds 
(polyphonous),  and  the  same  sounds  again  are  represented 
by  different  signs  (homophonous).  Finally,  not  one,  but 
five  or  more  dialects  have  been  traced  in  them;  dialects 
belonging  to  different  tribes  or  periods.  Thus  it  will  be 
easily  understood  that  many  and  momentous  philological 
problems  await  their  solution  from  the  progress  on  this  field; 
and  little  but  conjecture  is  as  yet  allowed  on  the  special 
points  of  our  present  subject.  Of  a  primeval  Babylonian 
literature,  however,  supposed  to  be  preserved  in  certain 


310  ON  SEMITIC  LANGUAGES. 

Arabic  translations,  of  which  some  hopes  were  entertained 
of  late  years,  nothing  reliable  has  come  to  light — although 
the  existence  of  ancient  Babylonian  writings  on  mathematics, 
astronomy  (combined  with  astrology),  and  chronology  is 
affirmed  by  ancient  authors. 

Turning,  however,  to  what  specimens  of  " Aramaic"  there 
are  preserved,  we  first  of  all  find  certain  dialects  represented 
in  them  which  have  been  variously  divided  into  "  Chaldee  " 
and  "Aramaic,"  or  into  "East-Aramaic"  and  "West- 
Aramaic,"  or  again,  into  "Jewish,"  "Heathen,"  and  "Chris- 
tian," and  finally,  into  "Palestinian"  and  "Babylonian" 
Aramaic.  Discarding  the  term  "  Chaldee  "as  liable  to  give 
most  rise  to  misunderstanding — it  is  first  found  in  the  Alex- 
andrines (^aX&uVm'),  and  was  adopted  by  Jerome — we  may, 
for  the  sake  of  brevity,  distinguish  between  Aramaean  JTD")N 
and  Syriac  (^D"T)D»  "1(1311  *Q}TT  ]wb),  which  carry,  at  least 
in  their  present  form  of  writing,  the  most  unmistakable  line 
of  demarcation  on  their  face.  In  the  first,  the  Aramaic 
(Jewish),  we  have  further  to  distinguish— a.  The  Galilean 
dialect,  which  seems  to  have  been  notorious  for  its  careless- 
ness in  the  use  and  pronunciation  of  its  consonants  and 
vowels.  The  sounds  of  K  and  Ch,  P  and  B,  &c.,  and  above 
all  the  gutturals,  were  hardly  distinguishable  in  their  speech. 
Of  so  little  importance,  indeed,  do  .these  seem  to  have  been, 
that  they  are  frequently  lost  altogether,  and  entirely  new 
sounds  and  compounds  are  formed — scarcely  to  be  reduced 
to  any  grammatical  or  logical  rule — by  the  mere  vulgarity 
of  an  idiom  saturated,  moreover,  with  unconglomerated 
foreign  elements  to  the  last  degree,  fc.  The  Samaritan — i.e. 
vulgar  Hebrew  and  Ararnaaan  mixed  up  together,  in  accord- 
ance with  the  genesis  of  the  people  itself.  It,  too,  changes 
its  gutturals,  uses  the  y  most  extensively,  and  does  not  dis- 
tinguish the  mute  consonants,  c.  The  Jerusalem  or  Judsean 
dialect  scarcely  ever  pronounces  the  final  gutturals ;  and  has 
besides  many  peculiar  turns  of  its  own,  which  show  all  the 
symptoms  of  provincialism,  but  it  boasts  of  a  fuller  vocalisa- 
tion. Its  orthography,  however,  is  one  of  the  strangest 
imaginable.  This  last  is  the  most  important  dialect  of  the 


ON  SEMITIC  LANGUAGES.  311 

three  Aramaic  ones,  for  in  it  the  whole  gigantic  Targumic 
and  (partly)  Talniudical  literature  is  written,  while  of  the 
Samaritan  there  exist  but  few  documents  of  a  theological, 
liturgical,  and  grammatical  nature,  and  the  Galilean  never 
had,  as  far  as  we  know,  any  literature  of  its  own.  We 
need  but  briefly  mention  here  the  minor  ("  heathen ") 
branches,  such  as  Zabian — standing  between  Aramaic  and 
Syriac,  the  language  of  a  mystico-theosophical  sect  called 
the  Mendaites  (  =  Gnostics),  which  is  largely  mixed  with 
Persian  elements,  and  almost  bereft  of  grammar ;  the 
Palmyrene,  a  kind  of  Syriac,  written  in  square  Hebraic 
characters ;  and  the  Egypio-Aramaic,  found  on  some  monu- 
ments (stone  of  Carpentras,  Papyri),  probably  due  to  Baby- 
lonian Jews  living  in  Egypt,  who  had  adopted  the  religion 
of  their  new  country. 

All  "  Aramaean  "  literature  —  in  contradistinction  to 
"  Syriac  " — is,  it  need  hardly  be  added,  Jewish  ;  from  the 
chapters  in  Daniel,  written  in  this  idiom,  to  the  last  remnant 
penned  in  Palestine  or  Babylon  (the  worship  in  the  temple 
and  the  earlier  schools  being,  as  we  said,  the  only  places  for 
which  the  "  Holy  Language  "  was  partly  retained),  this  was 
the  exclusively  used  popular  idiom.  It  had,  in  fact,  become 
so  popular  and  universal  that  it  came  to  be  called  'E/3/xzfccrTt 
(N.  T.  passim).  How  it  grew  to  be  so  universally  adopted 
has  hardly  been  sufficiently  explained  as  yet ;  for  the  Cap- 
tivity alone,  or  even  any  number  of  successively  returning 
batches  of  immigrants  from  Babylonia,  do  not  quite  account 
for  the  phenomenon  of  a  seemingly  poor  and  corrupt  dialect 
supplanting  so  completely  that  other  hallowed  by  the  most 
sacred  traditions,  that  this  became  a  dead  language  in  its 
own  country.  The  fact,  however,  is  undeniable,  as  at  the 
time  of  Christ  even  Scripture  itself  was  popularly  only 
known  through  the  medium  of  the  Aramaic  Targums. 
Nearly  all  the  Shemitisms  in  the  N.  T.  are  Aramaic,  and 
the  same  may  be  said  with  regard  to  those  found  in  Jo 
sephus :  cf.  Matt.  v.  22,  paKa=  Np'H  :  xvi.  17,  fiap  'Icom  = 
"Q ;  xxvii.  46,  17X1  77X1  X^a  aa^a^Oavi  =  T\tb  "btf  ^N 
1  Cor.  xvi.  22,  papav  a6d  =  RHN  pft ;  Joseph. 


312  ON  SEMITIC  LANGUAGES. 


Antiq.  iii.  10.  6,  'AaapOd  =  RTn^  ;   iii.  7.  1,  ov?  XazWa? 
KoXovo-u  =  N^rO,  etc. 

"  Syriae"  is  the  designation  of  an  idiom  used  since  the 
second  Christian  century  in  the  Church,  which,  though 
written  in  different  characters  (Estrangelo),  is  yet  so  closely 
akin  to  Aramaean  that  up  to  this  day  the  opinions  are 
divided  as  to  the  propriety  of  making  any  difference  at  all 
between  the  two.  As  distinguishing  marks  between  them 
have  been  adduced,  principally,  the  "  darker  "  vocalisation 
of  Syriae  —  o  for  a,  au  or  ai  for  o  or  i,  etc.  —  its  different 
accentuation,  its  3  as  the  prefix  of  the  third  pers.  future  for 
the  Aramaic  •»,  the  formation  of  the  Syriae  infinite  by  ft, 
and  its  greater  wealth  of  words,  chiefly  taken  from  the 
Greek;  all  of  which,  however,  together  with  other  pecu- 
liarities, are  reduced  by  the  advocates  of  the  unity  of  both 
dialects  to  provincial  differences  and  to  the  peculiar  circum- 
stances of  the  times.  But  here  again,  without  entering 
more  fully  into  the  question,  we  can  only  venture  the  state- 
ment that  there  seems  to  be  a  great  prima  facie  probability 
at  least  for  their  being  radically  identical  ;  only  let  it  not  be 
forgotten  that  in  order  to  be  able  to  form  a  real  judgment 
it  will  be  first  of  all  necessary  that  carefully-prepared  editions 
of  the  literatures  of  both  should  be  in  our  hands.  Something 
has  been  done  for  the  comparatively  poor  Syriae  branch  ;  for 
the  Aramaic,  nothing.  That,  however,  the  present  Maro- 
nite  dialect,  as  well  as  those  of  the  Jacobites,  Nestorians, 
and  other  Chaldee  Christians,  is  essentially  different  from 
both  Syriae  and  Aramaic,  is  undoubted  :  just  as  the  vulgar 
Arabic  spoken  in  Morocco  and  Algeria  differs  from  classical 
Arabic. 

The  Southern  or  u  Arabic  "  branch  presents  to  us  the  most 
remarkable  phenomenon  of  one  special  idiom  —  the  Arabic  — 
suddenly,  as  it  were,  starting  out  of  utter  obscurity  as  the 
richest,  most  complete,  and  most  refined  among  its  sister 
idioms,  at  a  time  comparatively  modern,  and  exactly  when 
the  two  other  branches  seemed  to  have  accomplished  their 
mission,  and  what  remained  of  their  life  was  merely  artificial. 
So  exquisitely  finished  and  so  boundlessly  wealthy,  botlv 


ON  SEMITIC  LANGUAGES.  313- 

lexically  and  grammatically,  has  it  been  from  the  moment 
when  it  first  became  known,  that,  as  there  was  no  unripe 
infancy  and  no  struggling  growth  observable  in  it,  so  there 
was  also  no  age,  and  far  less  a  decay.  It  thus  ranks  as  the 
freshest  and  "  youngest :"  precisely  in  the  same  sense  as  the 
Hebrew  may  be  styled  the  "  oldest "  among  the  Shemitic 
idioms — not,  as  we  said  above,  on  account  of  its  having  in 
reality  preceded  the  others,  or  still  less  of  its  having  given 
birth  to  the  others,  but  because  for  some  reason  or  other  its 
growth  stopped  at  a  certain  period,  and  it  seems  to  have 
retained  its  ancient  physiognomy,  while  its  sister  dialects 
went  on  developing  and  renewing  themselves  as  much  as  in 
them  lay  and  circumstances  permitted.  As  the  Arabic  was 
in  the  sixth  century,  so  it  remained  almost  unchanged  up  to 
our  day,  except  perhaps  that  in  absorbing  foreign,  especially 
Greek  elements  of  culture,  it  did  not  assimilate  them  quite 
in  the  same  congenial  manner  as  an  Indo-Germanic  idiom 
would  have  done.  But  for  all  that  this  language  must  have 
an  age  equal  at  least  to  that  of  the  other  two  sister  dialects. 
There  are  traces  of  its  peculiarities — peculiarities  which 
divide  it  as  sharply  as  can  be  from  them — to  be  found  in. 
the  earliest  records  of  the  0.  T.  We  have,  e.g.  the  article 
il  (the  Hebrew  [b]n)  in  TflD^N  (Gen.  x.  26),  and  further 
in  words  like  Dp^N,  ttfp1?**,  Dltfl^M*  D'DN^EN].  The  phe- 
nomenon, further,  of  a  real  declension  by  the  change  of  the 
termination  of  the  cases,  by  certain  "  broken  "  plurals,  &c.> 
together  with  many  forms  of  its  conjugation,  entirely  and 
radically  unknown  to  Shemitic  as  represented  by  its  other 
dialects,  proves  its  early  and  most  independent  existence. 
That,  further,  the  Arabs  stood  in  great  renown  for  wisdom ,. 
or  what  we  should  now  call  literary  proficiency — if  this  be 
not  a  misnomer  for  a  time  when  writing  was  unknown  among 
them — in  the  earliest  historical  times,  seems  clear  enough 
from  the  queen  of  Sheba's  being  an  Arab  queen,  the  friends 
of  Job  being  Arabs,  and  Solomon's  own  wisdom  being  com- 
pared to  the  wisdom  of  the  Arabs.  How  it  came  to  pass 
that  absolutely  nothing  should  have  survived  of  all  that 
literature  which  certainly  must  have  been  produced  among 


314  ON  SEMITIC  LANGUAGES. 

them  is  a  phenomenon  no  less  remarkable.     Although  two 
facts  must  be  borne  in  mind  always — viz.  that  it  all  was  oral, 
and  that  it  was  in  verse,  or  at  least  in  a  rhythmical  form 
adapted   to  those  early  proverbial   sayings   and   poems  of 
which  a  vague  Arabic  tradition  still  speaks;  and  Mohammed, 
for  reasons  of  his  own,  discouraged,  nay  condemned,  poetry— 
the   sole  vehicle  of  all  science,  all   tradition,  all   religion, 
before   him,  in   the   "time   of  ignorance."     A   comparison 
between  the  Arabic  and  the  two  other  branches  most  strik- 
ingly shows  that  superabundance,  lexically  and  grammati- 
cally, of  the  former  over  the  two  latter  of  which  we  spoke. 
No  one,  the  Arabs  hold,  could,  without  being  inspired,  keep 
the  whole  wealth  of  their  language  in  his  memory.    For  not 
only  have  single  words  (sword,  lion,  serpent,  etc.),  hundreds 
and  thousands  of  nuances  of  terms,  but  many  a  single  word 
has  untold  numbers  of  different  meanings.     The  number  of 
its  root  and  words  is  like  three,  respectively  ten,  to  those  of 
the  Hebrew — such  as  the  monuments  of  both  now  are  in  our 
hands.     No  doubt,  had  more  survived  of  the  Hebrew  litera- 
ture, the  proportion  would  not  have  been  quite  as  startling 
— for  we  now  have  only  fragments  of  its  religious  writings 
to  compare  with  the  endless  series  of  historical,  poetical, 
philological,  astronomical,  and  other  Arabic  literature;    a 
literature   which  indeed  does  not  leave   a  single  part  of 
science  or  belles  lettres  uncultivated,  and  which  spreads  over 
about  eight  hundred  years — subsequently  to  the  time   of 
Greece  and  Eome.     Nor  can  the  brilliant  Hebrew  literature 
that  sprang  up  in  the  middle  ages,  partly  through  Arabic 
influence,  be  taken  into  account.     Arabic,  though  its  "classi- 
cal "  period  may  be  closed  with  Mohammed,  never  became 
Neo-Arabic,  while  the  difference  between  classical  Hebrew 
and  late  Hebrew,  which  had  to  coin  new  words  at  every  turn, 
is  quite  unmistakable.     Arabic   grammar   shows   the  same 
ascendency  over  that  of  its  sister  idioms  as  does  its  dic- 
tionary.    It  has  twice  as  many  forms  of  conjugation  as  the 
Hebrew,  itself  richer  than  the  Aramaic  by  the  Hiphal,  the 
futururn  paragog,  and  apocop.  etc.     The  Arabic  has,  besides, 
over  both  the  advantage  of  a  comparative,  and  of  a  dual  in 


ON  SEMITIC  LANGUAGES.  315 

tho  verb.  The  Hebrew  n"1?  verbs,  which  in  Aramaic  are 
hardly  distinguishable  from  the  tf'b,  in  Arabic  split  into 
the  two  distinct  forms  of  i"1?  and  v1^ ;  just  as  many  a  He- 
brew root  with  more  than  one  signification  appears  in  Arabic 
its  a  variety  of  roots,  by  a  slight  change  of  a  consonant. 
Nay,  of  these,  it  has  five  more  than  the  Hebrew  and  Ara- 
maic. It  has  also,  through  the  amplitude  of  its  vocalisa- 
tion, the  charm  of  a  more  sonorous,  a  fuller  and  richer  tone 
and  colour  than  either.  But  it  must  also  be  acknowledged 
that  the  harmonious  flow  of  the  more  ancient  idioms,  their 
^nfettered  ease  and  freedom,  together  with  a  number  of 
peculiar  forms,  like  the  parallelism  with  its  exquisite  natural 
beauty,  is  lost  to  a  great  extent  in  the  Arabic,  in  which  the 
work  of  the  schools,  their  pedantic  striving  after  a  con- 
summate correctness  of  expression,  and  their  rhetorical 
"painting  of  the  lily,"  is  often  painfully  clear.  But  to 
the  Arabic  alone  is  also  due  the  spread  of  Shemitic — which 
had  been  carried  atomically,  so  to  speak,  by  the  Phoenicians 
to  the  ends  of  the  earth,  but  which,  with  a  few  isolated 
exceptions,  never  really  struck  root  anywhere — to  an  extent 
never  dreamed  of  by  any  ancient  or  even  modern  language ; 
a  spread  that  has  not  ceased  yet,  bat  is  enlarging  its  circles 
from  year  to  year,  together  with  Islam  itself.  It  is,  how- 
ever, as  we  said,  only  the  last  century  before  Mohammed, 
that  has  left  us  a  few  traces  of  pre-Islamic  literature.  From 
the  time  of  Mohammed  it  grew  with  exotic  rapidity  into 
one  of  the  most  widely  and  brilliantly  cultivated.  It  em- 
braced well  nigh  all  the  branches  of  human  knowledge 
and  research.  Theology,  medicine,  philosophy,  philology, 
history,  mathematics,  geography,  astronomy,  etc.,  are  most 
extensively  represented — though  as  yet  only  a  beginning 
has  been  made  in  making  the  treasures  of  information  these 
works  contain  as  widely  useful  as  they  might  be  made. 
From  the  fourteenth  century,  however,  the  glory  of  Arabic 
literature  began  to  wane. 

We  have  here  spoken  only  of  the  chief  representative  of 
the  Arabic  branch,  the  Arabic  itself — still  spoken  now  in 
the  whole  south-west  of  Asia,  in  the  north  and  east  of 


316  OX  SEMITIC  LANGUAGES. 

Africa,  in  Malta,  partly  even  in  India,  and  everywhere  in 
fact  where  Mohammedanism  reigns  supreme— which  was 
originally  the  dialect  of  one  tribe  only,  viz.  the  Koreish. 
The  ancient  traditions  speak  of  Cahtanic  and  Ismaelitic 
dialects:  but  at  present  we  can  only  make  a  vague  dis- 
tinction between  those  of  Yemen  and  of  Hedjaz,  during  the 
ante-Islamic  times.  As  the  Koreish  in  the  north-west  were 
the  spokesmen,  as  it  were,  of  the  latter,  so  the  Himyars  or 
Homerites  made  their  dialect  the  predominant  one  in  the 
south,  until  the  Koran  swept  it  completely  out  of  Arabia,, 
and,  save  a  few  scattered  quotations  embedded  in  later 
writings,  and  some  partly  mutilated  inscriptions  of  difficult 
reading  and  more  difficult  understanding,  every  trace  of  it 
in  its  original  form  has  disappeared.  The  Ethiopic  or  Gheez 
alone,  which  was  spoken  up  to  the  fourteenth  century  in 
Abyssinia,  seemed  to  have  come  nearest  to  it.  But  con- 
sidering the  scantiness  of  its  own  literary  remains,  which 
are  chiefly  of  a  theological  nature  (partly  unpublished),  and 
as  such  subject  to  the  influence  of  foreign  (European)  mis- 
sionaries— who  also  left  their  imprint  upon  it  in  its  excep- 
tional writing  from  left  to  right ;  considering  further  the 
small  progress  we  have  as  yet  made  in  deciphering  the  Him- 
yaritic,  nothing  but  a  very  cautious  judgment  on  the  relation 
of  the  two  can  be  pronounced.  The  Amharic,  a  barbarous 
Gheez  dialect,  stands,  so  to  say,  on  the  utmost  line  of  the 
Arabic  Sliemite,  and  deserves  but  a  passing  mention.  The 
idioms  of  the  Gallas,  Hamtonga,  and  a  number  of  other 
tribes,  however,  no  longer  belong  to  the  Shernitic,  notwith- 
standing some  outer  resemblances  which  have  misled  former 
investigators. 

Eespecting  the  visible  representation  of  the  Shemitic 
Languages,  it  may  be  broadly  observed  that  writing,  which 
in  no  language  fully  expresses  all  the  sounds  in  their  various 
shades,  has,  in  the  Shemitic  Languages  this  additional  im- 
perfection, that  only  the  consonants — the  skeleton  of  the 
word — are  represented  by  real  letters,  while  the  vowels 
originally  are  either  entirely  omitted,  or  only  the  longer 
ones  are  expressed  by  certain  consonants  (inatres  lectionis). 


ON  SEMITIC  LANGUAGES.  317 

It  was  only  at  a  comparatively  late  period  that  also  the 
minor  vowels  were  added  in  the  shape  of  little  strokes  and 
<lots  above  or  below  the  line,  but  this  aid  too  is  only  in- 
tended for  less  practised  readers.  Arabic  and  Hebrew  are 
still  commonly  written  and  printed  without  vowels.  Another 
point  is  the  direction  of  the  Shemitic  writing  from  right  to 
left  (of  which  only  modern  Ethiopia  makes  an  exception),  a 
peculiarity  still  inherent  in  the  alternate  line  of  the  Boustro- 
pliedon  of  the  early  Greeks.  The  nearest  approach  to  the 
most  ancient  form  of  the  Shemitic  characters  is  found  in 
the  Phoenician,  from  which  also  all  our  European  alphabets 
are  derived. 


(    319    ) 


XV. 
ON  THE  TARGUMS.1 


TAEGUM  (D^-tf),  from  Dry? ;  Arab.  ^  y ,  to  translate, 
explain) ;  a  Chaldee  word  of  uncertain  origin,  variously  de- 
rived from  the  roots  DJH,  Dp")  (comp.  Arab.  ^,  *JT,,  &c.), 
and  even  identified  with  the  Greek  rpdyTj/jua,  desert  (Fr. 
dragrees),  (trop.  rpay^ara  rwv  \oywv,  Dion.  Hal.  Bhet.  10, 
18),  which  occurs  often  in  the  Talmud  as  ND^ID  ^D>  °r 
NQVlin  ("such  as  dates,  almonds,  nuts,"  &c.  Pes.  1196):— 
the  general  term  for  the  CHALDEE,  or,  more  accurately 
AEAMAIC  VERSIONS  of  the  Old  Testament. 

The  injunction  to  "read  the  Book  of  the  Law  before 
all  Israel  ....  the  men,  and  women,  and  children,  and  the 
strangers,"  on  the  Feast  of  Tabernacles  of  every  Sabbatical 
year,  as  a  means  of  solemn  instruction  and  edification,  is 
first  found  in  Deut.  xxxi.  10-13.  How  far  the  ordinance  was 
observed  in  early  times  we  have  no  means  of  judging.  It 
would  appear,  however,  that  such  readings  did  take  place  in 
the  days  of  Jeremiah.  Certain  it  is  that  among  the  first  acts 
undertaken  by  Ezra  towards  the  restoration  of  the  primitive 
religion  and  public  worship  is  reported  his  reading  "  before 
the  congregation,  both  of  men  and  women  "  of  the  returned 
exiles,  "in  the  Book  in  the  Law  of  God"  (Nek  viii.  2,  8). 
Aided  by  those  men  of  learning  and  eminence  with  whom, 
according  to  tradition,  he  founded  that  most  important 
religious  and  political  body  called  the  Great  Synagogue, 
or  Men  of  the  Great  Assembly  (n^TOn  .HD33  'TON,  536-167), 
he  appears  to  have  succeeded  in  so  firmly  establishing 


From  Dr.  Wm.  Smith's  '  Dictionary  of  the  Bible,'  vol.  iii. 


320  ON  THE  TARGUMS. 

regular  and  frequent  public  readings  in  the  Sacred  Eecords, 
that  later  authorities  almost  unanimously  trace  this  hallowed 
custom  to  times  immemorial  —  nay  to  the  time  of  Moses 
himself.  Such  is  the  statement  of  Josephus  (c.  Ap.  ii.  17) ; 
.and  we  read  in  the  Acts,  xv.  21,  "  For  Moses  of  old  time 
hath  in  every  city  them  that  preach  him,  being  read  in  the 
synagogue  every  sabbath-day."  So  also  Jer.  Meg.  i.  1 : 
"  Ezra  has  instituted  for  Israel  that  the  maledictions  in  the 
Pentateuch  should  also  be  read  in  public,"  &c.  Further, 
Meg.  31  &,  "Ezra  instituted  ten  things,  viz.,  that  there 
should  be  readings  in  the  Law  also  in  the  afternoon  service 

of  Sabbath,  on  the  Monday,  and  on  the  Thursday,  &c 

But  was  not  this  instituted  before  in  the  desert,  as  we  find 
•'  they  went  for  three  days  and  found  no  water  '  (water  mean- 
ing the  Law,  as  Is.  Iv.  1  is  fancifully  explained  by  the 
Haggadah),  until  the  '  prophets  among  them  '  arranged  the 
three  weekly  readings?  So  Ezra  only  reinstituted  them," 
comp.  also  B.  Kama,  82  a,  &c.  To  these  ancient  readings  in 
the  Pentateuch  were  added,  in  the  course  of  time,  readings 
in  the  Prophets  (in  some  Babylonian  cities  even  in  the 
Hagiographa),  which  were  called  JTntDSn,  Haftaroth ;  but 
when  and  how  these  were  introduced  is  still  matter  of  specu- 
lation. Former  investigators  (Abudraham,  Elias  Levita, 
Vitringa,  &c.)  almost  unanimously  trace  their  origin  to  the 
Syrian  persecution,  during  which?  all  attention  to  the  Law 
was  strictly  prohibited,  and  even  all  the  copies  of  it  that 
were  found  were  ruthlessly  destroyed ;  so  that,  as  a  sub- 
stitute for  the  Pentateuchical  Parasha,  a  somewhat  corre- 
sponding portion  of  the  Prophets  was  read  in  the  synagogue, 
and  the  custom,  once  introduced,  remained  fixed.  Eecent 
scholars,  on  the  other  hand,  without  much  show  of  reason, 
as  it  would  appear,  variously  hold  the  Haftarah  to  have 
sprung  from  the  sermon  or  homiletic  exercise  which  accom- 
panied the  reading  in  the  Pentateuch,  and  took  its  exordium 
(as  Haftarah,  by  an  extraordinary  linguistic  stretch,  is  ex- 
plained by  Frankel)  from  a  prophetic  passage,  adapted  in 
a  manner  to  the  Mosaic  text  under  consideration ;  or,  again, 
they  imagine  the  Haftarah  to  have  taken  its  rise  sponta- 


ON  THE  TAEGUMS. 


321 


neously  during  the  exile  itself,  and  that  Ezra  retained  and 
enforced  it  in  Palestine. 

If,  however,  the  primitive  religion  was  re-established,  to- 
gether with  the  second  Temple,  in  more  than  its  former 
vigour,  thus  enabling  the  small  number  of  the  returned 
exiles — and  these,  according  to  tradition,  the  lowest  of  the 
low,  the  poor  in  wealth,  in  knowledge,  and  in  ancestry,1  the 
very  outcasts  and  refuse  of  the  nation  as  it  were 2 — to  found 
upon  the  ruins  of  Zion  one  of  the  most  important  and 
lasting  spiritual  commonwealths  that  has  ever  been  known, 
there  was  yet  one  thing  which  neither  authority  nor  piety, 
neither  academy  nor  synagogue,  could  restore  to  its  original 
power  and  glory — the  Hebrew  language.  Ere  long  it  was 
found  necessary  to  translate  the  national  books,  in  order  that 
the  nation  from  whose  midst  they  had  sprung  might  be  able 
to  understand  them.  And  if  for  the  Alexandrine,  or  rather 
the  whole  body  of  Hellenistic  Jews,  Greek  translations  had 
to  be  composed,  those  who  dwelt  on  the  hallowed  soil  of 
their  forefathers  had  to  receive  the  sacred  word  through 
an  Aramaic  medium.  The  word  itniBQ,  Mephorash,  "  expla- 
natorily," "  clearly,"  or,  as  the  A.  V.  has  it,  "distinctly,"  used 
in  the  above-quoted  passage  of  Neh.  viii.  8,  is  in  the  Talmud 
explained  by  "  Targum."  3  Thus  to  Ezra  himself  is  traced 
the  custom  of  adding  translations  in  the  then  popular  idiom 
—the  Aramaic — to  the  periodical  readings  ( Jer.  Meg.  28  I ; 
J.  Ned.  iv.,  Bab.  Ned.  i. ;  Maim.  Hilch.  Teph.  xii.  §  10,  &c.), 


1  "  Ten  kinds  of  families  went  up  from 
Babylon  :  Priests,  Levites,  Israelites, 

profaned  (^vfl,  those  whose  fathers 
are  priests,  but  whose  mothers  are  not 
fit  for  priestly  marriage)  ;  proselytes, 
freedmen,  bastards  (or  rather  those 
born  in  illegal  wedlock);  Nethinim 
{lowest  menials  of  the  Temple);  ''plf!^ 
('  about  whose  lineage  there  is  silence,' 
—  of  unknown  fathers);  and  *5ilDK, 
'  foundlings,  of  unknown  father  and 
mother'"  (Kidd.  4,  1). 

2  "  Ezra,  on  leaving  Babylon,  .made 

it  like  unto  pure  flour  " 


3  '"And  they  read  in  the  book  of 


the  Law  of  God  clearly  (£niD£),  and 
gave  the  understanding,  so  that  they 
understood  the  reading : '  —  'in  the 
book  of  the  Law ' — this  is  Mikra,  the 
original  reading  in  the  Pentateuch; 
'  GJniSD,  clearly ' — this  is  Targum  " 
(Meg.  3  a;  Ned.  37  &).  To  this 
tradition  also  might  be  referred  the 
otherwise  rather  enigmatical  passage 
(Sanh.  21  &)  :  "  Originally,"  says  Mar 
Sutra,  "  the  Law  was  given  to  Israel 
in  Ibri  writing  and  the  holy  (Hebrew) 
language.  It  was  again  given  to  them 
in  the  days  of  Ezra  in  the  Aslmrith 
writing  and  the  Aramaic  language,'* 
&c. 


322  ON  THE  TAKGUMS. 

for  which  he  is  also  reported  to  have  fixed  the  Sabbaths,  the- 
Mondays  and  Thursdays — the  two  latter  the  market  and 
law-days,  when  the  villagers  came  to  town — of  every  week 
(Jer.  Meg.  i.  1 ;  Baba  Kama,  82  a).  The  gradual  decay  of 
the  pure  Hebrew  vernacular,  among  the  multitude  at  least, 
may  be  accounted  for  in  many  ways.  The  Midrash  very 
strikingly  points  out,  among  the  characteristics  of  the  long 
sojourn  of  Israel  in  Egypt,  that  they  neither  changed  their 
language,  nor  their  names,  nor  the  shape  of  their  garments, 
during  all  that  time.  The  bulk  of  their  community — shut 
up,  as  it  were,  in  the  small  province  of  Goshen,  almost 
exclusively  reduced  to  intercourse  with  their  own  race  and 
tribes,  devoted  only  to  the  pasture  of  their  flocks,  and 
perhaps  to  the  tilling  of  their  soil — were  in  a  condition 
infinitely  more  favourable  for  the  retention  of  all  the  signs 
and  tokens  of  their  nationality  than  were  the  Babylonian 
captives.  The  latter  scattered  up  and  down  the  vast  empire, 
seem  to  have  enjoyed  everywhere  full  liberty  of  intercom- 
munication with  the  natives — very  similar  in  many  respects 
to  themselves — to  have  been  utterly  unrestrained  in  the 
exercise  of  every  profession  and  trade,  and  even  to  have 
risen  to  the  highest  offices  of  state;  and  thus,  during  the 
comparatively  short  space,  they  struck  root  so  firmly  in  the 
land  of  their  exile,  that  when  opportunity  served,  they  were, 
on  the  whole,  loth  to  return  to  the  Land  of  Promise.  What 
more  natural  than  that  the  immigrants  under  Zerubbabel,  and 
still  more  those  who  came  with  Ezra — several  generations  of 
whose  ancestors  had  been  settled  in  Babel  —  should  have 
brought  back  with  them  the  Aramaic,  if  not  as  their  ver- 
nacular, at  all  events  as  an  idiom  with  which  they  were 
perfectly  familiar,  and  which  they  may  partly  have  con- 
tinued to  use  as  their  colloquial  language  in  Palestine,  as*  in 
fact,  they  had  had  to  use  it  in  Babylon  ?  Continuous  later 
immigrations  from  the  "  Captivity  "  did  not  fail  to  reinforce 
and  further  to  spread  the  use  of  the  same  tongue.  All  the 
decrees  and  official  communications  addressed  to  the  Jews  by 
their  Persian  masters  were  in  Aramaic  (Ezr.  Neh.  passim), 
Judaea  being  considered  only  as  part  of  the  Syrian  satrapy. 


ON  THE  TARGUMS. 


323 


Nor  must  it  be  forgotten  that  the  whole  colonists  in  Palestine 
(2  K.  xvii.  24)  were  Samaritans,  who  had  come  from  "  Aram 
and  Babel,"  and  who  spoke  Chaldee ;  that  intermarriages 
with  women  from  Ashdod,  Ammon,  and  Moab  had  been 
common  (Neh.  xiii.  23) ;  that  Phoenicia,  whose  merchants 
(Tyrians,  Neh.  xiii.  16)  appear  to  have  settled  in  Palestine, 
and  to  have  established  commercial  relations  with  Judaea 
and  Galilee,  contains  large  elements  of  Chaldee  in  its  own 
idiom.  Thus  it  came  to  pass  that  we  find  in  the  Book  of 
Daniel,  for  instance,  a  somewhat  forced  Hebrew,  from  which, 
as  it  would  seem,  the  author  gladly  lapses  into  the  more 
familiar  Aramaic  (comp.  ii.  4,  &c.) ;  that  oracles  were 
received  by  the  High-priests  Johanan  l  and  Simon  the  Just 2 
in  the  Holy  of  Holies  (during  the  Syrian  wars)  in  Aramaic 
(Sotah,  33  a)  and  that,  in  short,  some  time  before  the 
Hasmonean  period,  this  was  the  language  in  which  were 
couched  not  only  popular  sayings,  proverbs,  and  the  like 
(BTHil  ^D-  Beresh.  E.  107  d ;  Tanch.  17  a ;  Midr.  Tehill. 
23  d;  51  /,  &c.  &c.),  but  official  and  legal  documents 
(Mishnah  Ketub.  4,  8;  Toseftah  Sabb.  c.  8  ;  Edujoth,  8,  4— 
c.  130  B.C.),  even  certain  prayers  3 — of  Babylonian  origin  pro- 
bably— and  in  which  books  destined  for  the  great  mass  of 
the  people  were  written.4  Thus,  indeed,  the  Hebrew  Lan- 
guage— the  "language  of  Kenaan"  (Is.  xix.  18),  or  "  Jehu- 
dith"  (2  K.  xviii.  26,  28;  Is.  xxxvi.  11)  of  the  Bible- 
became  more  and  more  the  language  of  the  few,  the  learned, 
the  Holy  Language,  ttnpn  \\vh  or,  still  more  exactly,  ]"^ 
/TO?  "Language  of  the  Temple,"  set  aside  almost 


1  "  The  youths  who  went  to  combat 
at  Antiochia  have  been  victorious." 

2  "  Perished  has  the   army  which 
the  enemy  thought  to  lead  against  the 
Temple." 

3  Introduction  to  the  Haggadah  for 

the  Pesach  (K»pfc  KHD) :  "  Such  was 
the  bread  of  misery  which  our  fathers 
ate  in  the  land  of  Mizrajim.  Whoever 
is  needy,  he  come  and  eat  with  us ; 
whoever  is  in  want,  he  come  and  cele- 
brate the  Pesach.  This  year  here, 
next  year  in  the  land  of  Israel ;  this 
year  slaves,  next  year  free  men." 


The 


Kaddish,  to  which  afterwards  a  certain 
signification  as  a  prayer  for  the  dead 
was  given,  and  which  begins  as  fol- 
lows :  Let  there  be  magnified  and 
sanctified  the  Great  Name  in  the 
world  which  He  has  created  according 
to  His  will,  and  which  He  rules  as 
His  kingdom,  during  your  life  and 
your  days,  and  the  life  of  the  whole 
house  of  Israel,  speedily  and  in  a  near 
time,  and  say  ye,  « Amen  :  Be  the 
Great  Name  praised  for  ever  and  ever- 
more,' "  &c. 

4  Megillath  Taanith,  &c. 
Y  2 


324  ON  THE  TARGUMS. 

exclusively  for  the  holy  service  of  religion :  be  it  the  Divine 
Law  and  the  works  in  which  this  was  contained  (like  the 
Mishnah,  the  Boraithot,  Mechilta,  Sifri,  Sifra,  the  older 
Midrashim,  and  very  many  portions  of  the  Talmud),  or  the 
correspondence  between  the  different  academies  (witness  the 
Hebrew  letter  sent  from  Jerusalem  to  Alexandria  about  100 
B.C.,  Chag.  Jer.  ii.  2),  or  be  it  the  sacred  worship  itself  in 
temple  and  synagogue,  which  was  almost  entirely  carried  on 
in  pure  Hebrew. 

If  the  common  people  thus  gradually  had  lost  all  know- 
ledge of  the  tongue  in  which  were  written  the  books  to  be 
read  to  them,  it  naturally  followed  (in  order  "that  they 
might  understand  them")  that  recourse  must  be  had  to  a 
translation  into  the  idiom  with  which  they  were  familiar — 
the  Aramaic.  That  further,  since  a  bare  translation  could 
not  in  all  cases  suffice,  it  was  necessary  to  add  to  the  trans- 
lation an  explanation,  more  particularly  of  the  more  difficult 
and  obscure  passages.  Both  translation  and  explanation 
were  designated  by  the  term  Tar  gum.  In  the  course  of 
time  there  sprang  up  a  guild,  whose  special  office  it  was 
to  act  as  interpreters  in  both  senses  (Meturgeman  *),  while 
formerly  the  learned  alone  volunteered  their  services.  These 
interpreters  were  subjected  to  certain  bonds  and  regulations 
as  to  the  form  and  substance  of  their  renderings.  Thus 
(comp.  Mishnah  Meg.  passim ;  Mass.  Sofer.  xi.  1 ;  Maimon. 
Hilch. Tephill.  12,  §  11  ff;  Orach  Chaj.  145,  1,  2),  "neither 
the  reader  nor  the  interpreter  are  to  raise  their  voices  one 
above  the  other ;  "  "  they  have  to  wait  for  each  other  until 
each  have  finished  his  verse ;  "  "  the  Meturgeman  is  not 
to  lean  against  a  pillar  or  a  beam,  but  to  stand  with  fear  and 
with  reverence ;  "  "  he  is  not  to  use  a  written  Tar  gum,  but  he 
is  to  deliver  his  translation  vive  voce  " — lest  it  might  appear 
that  he  was  reading  out  of  the  Torah  itself,  and  thus  the 
Scriptures  be  held  responsible  for  what  are  Ms  own  dicta ; 
"no  more  than  one  verse  in  the  Pentateuch,  and  three  in 


(Ar. 

Arm.     Sargmaniel ;    Ital. 


Turcimanno;  Fr.  Trucliement ;  Eugl. 
Dragoman,  &c. 


ON  THE  TARGUMS.  325 

the  Prophets  [a  greater  licence  is  given  for  the  Book  of 
Esther]  shall  be  read  and  translated  at  a  time  ;  "  "  that  there 
should  be  not  more  than  one  reader  and  one  interpreter  for 
the  Law,  while  for  the  Prophets  one  reader  and  one  inter- 
preter, or  two  interpreters,  are  allowed,"  &c.  (comp.  Cor.  xiv. 
21  ff ;  xii.  30 ;  27, 28).  Again  (Mishnah  Meg.  and  Tosiftah, 
ad  loc.\  certain  passages  liable  to  give  offence  to  the  multi- 
tude are  specified,  which  may  be  read  in  the  synagogue  and 
translated ;  others,  which  may  be  read  but  not  translated ; 
others,  again,  which  may  neither  be  read  nor  translated. 
To  the  first  class  *  belong  the  account  of  the  Creation — a 
subject  not  to  be  discussed  publicly,  on  account  of  its  most 
vital  bearing  upon  the  relation  between  the  Creator  and  the 
Kosmos,  and  the  nature  of  both :  the  deed  of  Lot  and  his 
two  daughters  (Gen.  xix.  31) ;  of  Judah  and  Tamar  (Gen. 
xxxviii.) ;  the  first  account  of  the  making  of  the  golden  calf 
(Ex.  xxxii.)  ;  all  the  curses  in  the  Law ;  the  deed  of  Amnon 
and  Tamar  (2  Sam.  xiii.)  ;  of  Absalom  with  his  father's  con- 
cubines (2  Sam.  xvi.  22)  ;  the  story  of  the  woman  of  Gibeah 
(Judg.  xix.).  These  are  to  be  read  and  translated — being 
mostly  deeds  which  carried  their  own  punishments  with 
them.  To  be  read  but  not  translated  are2  the  deed  of 
Keuben  with  his  father's  concubine  (Gen.  xxv.  22) ;  the 
latter  portion  of  the  story  of  the  golden  calf  (Ex.  xxxii.) ; 
the  benediction  of  the  priests  (on  account  of  its  awful 
nature).  And  neither  to  be  read  nor  translated  are  the 
deed  of  David  and  Bathsheba  (2  Sam.  xi.  and  xii.),  and 
according  to  one  the  story  of  Amnon  and  Tamar  (2  Sam. 
xiii.).  (Both  the  latter  stories,  however,  are,  in  Mishnah  Meg. 
iv.  10,  enumerated  among  those  of  the  second  class,  which 
are  to  be  read  but  not  translated.) 

Altogether  these  Meturgemanim  do  not  seem  to  have  been 
held  generally  in  very  high  respect ;  one  of  the  reasons 
being  probably  that  they  were  paid  (two  Selaim  at  one  time, 
according  to  Midr.  K.  Gen.  98),  and  thus  made  (what  P. 


Comprised  in  the  mnemonic  formula,  n£&5  jpjj  ft>l  (^eo-  2$  «)• 


326  ON  THE  TARGUMS. 

Aboth  especially  inveighs  against)  the  Torah  "a  spade  to 
dig  with  it,"  "  No  sign  of  blessing,"  it  was  said,  moreover, 
"could  rest  upon  the  profit  they  made  by  their  calling, 
since  it  was  money  earned  on  the  Sabbath"  (Pes.  4  &). 
Persons  unfit  to  be  readers,  as  those  whose  clothes  were 
so  torn  and  ragged  that  their  limbs  became  visible  through 
the  rents  (nrH3)>  their  appearance  thus  not  corresponding  to 
the  reverence  due  to  the  sacred  word  itself,  or  blind  men, 
were  admitted  to  the  office  of  a  Meturgeman;  and,  apart 
from  there  not  being  the  slightest  authority  attached  to 
their  interpretations,  they  were  liable  to  be  stopped  and 
silenced,  publicly  and  ignoininiously,  whenever  they  seemed 
to  overstep  the  bounds  of  discretion.  At  what  time  the 
regulation  that  they  should  not  be  under  fifty  years  of  age 
in  odd  reference  to  the  "  men  of  fifty,"  Is.  iii.  3,  mentioned 
in  Juchas.  44,  2)  came  into  use,  we  are  not  able  to  decide. 
The  Mishnah  certainly  speaks  even  of  a  minor  (under  thirteen 
years)  as  being  allowed  both  to  read  and  to  act  as  a 
Meturgeman  (com p.  Mishnah  Meg.jpass^m).  Altogether  they 
appear  to  have  borne  the  character  of  empty-headed,  bom- 
bastic fools.  Thus  Midr.  Koh.  has  to  Eccl.  vii.  5:  "'It 
is  better  to  hear  the  rebuke  of  the  wise  : ' — these  are  the 
preachers  (Darshanim) — *  than  for  a  man  to  hear  the  song 
of  fools : ' — these  are  the  Meturgemanim,  who  raise  their 
voices  in  sing-song,  ("Vl£O>  or  with  empty  fancies)  : — '  that 
the  people  may  hear/  "  And  to  ix.  17 :  " '  The  words  of 
wise  men  are  heard  in  quiet ' — these  are  the  preachers  (Dar- 
shanim)— *  more  than  the  cry  of  him  that  ruleth  among 
fools ' — these  are  the  Meturgemauim  who  stand  above  the 
congregation."  And  though  both  passages  may  refer  more 
especially  to  those  Meturgemanim  (Emoras,  speakers,  ex- 
pounders) who  at  a  later  period  stood  by  the  side  of  the 
Chacham,  or  president  of  the  Academy,  the  preacher  /car' 
Qoyfiv  (himself  seated  on  a  raised  dais),  and  repeated  with 
a  loud  voice,  and  enlarged  upon  what  the  latter  had  whis- 
pered into  their  ear  in  Hebrew  (jT"Oy  ]}ufo  *b  t^m1?  DDJT, 
com  p.  Matt.  x.  27,  "  What  ye  hear  in  the  ear,  that  preach  ye 
upon  the  housetops  "),  yet  there  is  an  abundance  of  instances 


ON  THE  TAEGUMS.  327 

to  show  that  the  Meturgeman  at  the  side  of  the  reader  was 
exposed  to  rebukes  of  a  nature,  and  is  spoken  of  in  a  manner, 
not  likely  to  be  employed  towards  any  but  men  low  in  the 
social  scale. 

A  fair  notion  of  what  was  considered  a  proper  Targum 
may  be  gathered  from  the  maxim  preserved  in  the  Talmud 
(Kidd.  49,  a):  "Whosoever  translates  [as  Meturgeman]  a 
verse  in  its  closely  exact  form  [without  proper  regard  to  its 
real  meaning]  is  a  liar,  and  whoever  adds  to  it  is  impious  and 
a  blasphemer:  e.g.  the  literal  rendering  into  Chaldee  of  the 
verse, '  They  saw  the  God  of  Israel '  (Ex.  xxiv.  10),  is  as 
wrong  a  translation  as  *  They  saw  the  angel  of  God ; '  the 
proper  rendering  being,  *  They  saw  the  glory  of  the  God  of 
Israel.' "  Other  instances  are  found  in  the  Mishnah  (Meg. 
iv.  8) ;  "  Whosoever  renders  the  text  (Lev.  xviii.  21)  '  And 
thou  shalt  not  let  any  of  thy  seed  pass  through  the  fire  to 
Molech,'  by  '  Thou  shalt  not  give  thy  seed  to  be  carried  over 
to  heathenism  (or  to  an  Aramite  woman) '  [i.e.  as  the  Gemara 
ad  loc. ;  Jer.  Sanh.  8,  and  Sifri  on  Deut.  xxiii.  10,  explain  it, 
one  who  marries  an  Aramaic  woman ;  for  although  she  may 
become  a  proselyte,  she  is  yet  sure  to  bear  enemies  to  him 
and  to  God,  since  the  mother  will  in  the  end  carry  his 
children  over  to  idolatrous  worship]  ;  as  also  he  who  enlarges 
upon  (or  figuratively  explains)  the  sections  relative  to  incest 
(Lev.  xviii.) — he  shall  forthwith  be  silenced  and  publicly 
rebuked."  Again  (comp.  Jer.  Ber.  v.  1 ;  Meg.  iv.  10), 
"  Those  who  translate  '  0  my  people,  children  of  Israel,  as 
I  am  merciful  in  heaven,  so  shall  ye  be  merciful  on 
earth:' — 'Cow  or  ewe,  it  and  her  young  ye  shall  not  kill 
in  one  day'  (Lev.  xxii.  28) — they  do  not  well,  for  they 
represent  the  Laws  of  God  [whose  reasons  no  man  dare 
try  to  fathom]  as  mere  axioms  of  mercy ;"  and,  it  is  added, 
"  the  short-sighted  and  the  frivolous  will  say,  '  Lo !  to  a 
bird's-nest  He  extends  His  mercy,  but  not  to  yonder 
miserable  man  ....'" 

The  same  causes  which,  in  the  course  of  time,  led  to  the 
writing  down — after  many  centuries  of  oral  transmission — of 
the  whole  body  of  the  Traditional  Law,  the  very  name  of 


328  ON  THE  TAKGUMS. 


which  (n3  by3W  min»  "  oral  law,"  in  contradistinction  to 
3J"DHfr  mi/1,  or  "  written  law  ")  seemed  to  imply  that  it 
should  never  become  a  fixed,  immutable  code,  engendered 
also,  and  about  the  same  period,  as  it  would  appear,  written 
Targums  :  for  certain^  portions  of  the  Bible,  at  least.1 

The  fear  of  the  adulterations  and  mutilations  which  tha 
Divine  Word  —  amid  the  troubles  within  and  without  the 
Commonwealth  —  must  undergo  at  the  hands  of  incompetent 
or  impious  exponents,  broke  through  the  rule,  that  the 
Targum  should  only  be  oral,  lest  it  might  acquire  undue 
authority  (comp.  Mishnah  Meg.  iv.  5,  10  ;  Tosifta,  ib.  3  ;  Jer. 
Meg.  4,  1  ;  Bab.  Meg.  24  a  ;  Sota,  39  1).  Thus,  if  a  Targum 
of  Job  is  mentioned  (Sab.  115  a;  Tr.  Soferim,  5,  15;  Tosifta 
Sab.  c.  14;  Jer.  Sabb.  16,  1)  as  having  been  highly  dis- 
approved by  Gamaliel  the  Elder  (middle  of  first  century 
A.D.),  who  caused  it  to  be  hidden  and  buried  out  of  sight  :  — 
we  find,  on  the  other  hand,  at  the  end  of  the  second  century,. 
the  practice  of  reading  the  Targum  generally  commended, 
and  somewhat  later  Jehoshua  ben  Levi  enjoins  it  as  a  special 
duty  upon  his  sons.  The  Mishnah  even  contains  regulations 
about  the  manner  (Jad.  iv.  5)  in  which  the  Targum  is  to  be 
written.  But  even  in  their  written,  and,  as  we  may  presume,. 
authoritatively  approved  form,  the  Targums  were  of  com- 
paratively small  weight,  and  of  no  canonical  value  whatso- 
ever. The  Sabbath  was  not  to  be  broken  for  their  sake  as  it 
was  lawful  to  do  for  the  Scripture  in  the  original  Hebrew 
(Sab.  115  a).  The  Targum  does  not  defile  the  hands  (for 
the  purpose  of  touching  consecrated  food)  as  do  the  Chaldee 
portions  of  Ezra  and  Nehemiah  (Yad.  iv.  5). 

The  gradual  growth  of  the  Code  of  the  written  Targum, 
such  as  now  embraces  almost  the  whole  of  the  O.T.,  and 
contains,  we  may  presume,  but  few  snatches  of  the  primitive 
Targums,  is  shrouded  in  deep  obscurity.  We  shall  not  fail 


1  As,  according  to  Frankel,  the  were  originally  left  untranslated. 
LXX.  was  only  a  partial  translation  Saaclia  in  a  similar  manner  uses  the 
at  first.  Witness  the  confusion  in  the  !  f  , 
last  chapters  of  Exodus,  which,  as  mere  formulas 
repetitions  (of  chaps,  xxv.  and  xxix.),  repetitions. 


ON  THE  TAKGUMS. 

to  indicate  the  opinions  arrived  at  as  to  the  date  and  author- 
ship of  the  individual  versions  in  their  due  places ;  but  we 
must  warn  the  reader  beforehand,  that  no  positive  results 
have  been  attained  as  yet,  save  that  nearly  all  the  names  and 
dates  hitherto  commonly  attached  to  them  must  l)e  rejected. 
And  we  fear  that,  as  long  at  least  as  the  Targum  shares  the 
fate  of  the  LXX.,  the  Samaritan  Pentateuch,  the  Midrash, 
the  Talmud,  &c. : — viz.,  that  a  really  critical  edition  remains 
a  thing  occasionally  dreamt  of,  but  never  attempted ; — so 
long  must  we  abandon  the  hope  of  getting  any  nearer  a 
final  solution  of  this  and  many  other  still  more  important 
questions.  The  utter  corruption,  moreover,  of  the  Targum, 
bitterly  complained  of  already  by  Elias  Levita — (an  author, 
be  it  observed,  of  very  moderate  attainments,  but  absurdly 
overrated  by  certain  of  his  contemporaries,  and  by  those  who 
copied  his  usually  shallow  dicta  without  previous  exami- 
nation)— debars  us  from  more  than  half  its  use.  And  yet 
how  fertile  its  study  could  be  made ;  what  light  it  might  be 
made  capable  of  throwing  upon  the  Bible  itself,  upon  the 
history  of  the  earliest  development  of  Biblical  studies,  ver- 
sions, and  upon  the  Midrash — both  the  Halachah  and  Hag- 
gadah — snatches  of  which,  in  their,  as  it  were,  liquid  stages, 
lie  embedded  in  the  Targums : — all  this  we  need  not  urge 
here  at  length. 

Before,  however,  entering  into  a  more  detailed  account,  we 
must  first  dwell  for  a  short  time  on  the  Midrash1  itself,  of 
which  the  Targum  forms  part. 

The  centre  of  all  mental  activity  and  religious  action 
among  the  Jewish  community,  after  the  return  from  Babylon,, 
was  the  Scriptural  Canon  collected  by  the  Soferim,  or  men 
of  the  Great  Synagogue.  These  formed  the  chief  authority 
on  the  civil  and  religious  law,  and  their  authority  was  the 
Pentateuch.  Their  office  as  expounders  and  commentators 


1  Bmo  (Arab    ,  .  A-o),  first  used  !  «tory^-   ,The  compilers  of  Chronicles. 
(J^J  seem  to  have  used  such  promiscuous 

in  2  Chr.  xiii.  22,  xxiv.  27;  "Com- 
mentary," in   the   sense    of    Caesar's 

Commentaries,"     enlargement,    em- 


works  treating  of  biblical  personages 
and  events,  provided  they  contained 


bellishment,  complement,  &c.  (A.  V.  ;  book. 


aught  that  served  the  tendency  of  the 


330  ON  THE  TARGUMS. 

of  the  Sacred  Becords  was  twofold.  They  had,  firstly,  to 
explain  the  exact  meaning  of  such  prohibitions  and  ordinances 
contained  in  the  Mosaic  Books  as  seemed  not  explicit  enough 
for  the  multitude,  and  the  precise  application  of  which  in 
former  days,  had  been  forgotten  during  the  Captivity.  Thus, 
e.g.  general  terms,  like  the  "  work  "  forbidden  on  the  Sabbath, 
were  by  them  specified  and  particularized  ;  not  indeed  accord- 
ing to  their  own  arbitrary  and  individual  views,  but  according 
to  tradition  traced  back  to  Sinai  itself.  Secondly,  laws 
neither  specially  contained  nor  even  indicated  in  the  Penta- 
teuch were  inaugurated  by  them  according  to  the  new  wants 
of  the  times  and  the  ever-shifting  necessities  of  the  growing 
Commonwealth  (Geseroth,  Tekanoiti).  Nor  were  the  latter 
in  all  cases  given  on  the  sole  authority  of  the  Synod ;  but 
they  were  in  most  cases  traditional,  and  certain  special  letters 
or  signs  in  the  Scriptures,  seemingly  superfluous  or  out  of 
place  where  they  stood,  were,  according  to  fixed  herme- 
neutical  rules,  understood  to  indicate  the  inhibitions  and 
prohibitions  (Gedarim,  "Fences"),  newly  issued  and  fixed. 
But  Scripture,  which  had  for  this  purpose  to  be  studied  most 
minutely  and  unremittingly — the  most  careful  and  scru- 
tinizing attention  being  paid  even  to  its  outward  form  and 
semblance — was  also  used,  and  more  especially  in  its  non- 
legal,  prophetical  parts,  for  homiletic  purposes,  as  a  wide 
field  of  themes  for  lectures,  sermons,  and  religious  discourses, 
both  in  and  out  of  the  Synagogue : — at  every  solemnity  in 
public  and  private  life.  This  juridical  and  homiletical  ex- 
pounding and  interpreting  of  Scripture — the  germs  of  both 
of  which  are  found  still  closely  intertwined  and  bound  up 
with  each  other  in  the  Targum — is  called  darash,  and  the 
avalanche  of  Jewish  literature  which  began  silently  to  gather 
from  the  time  of  the  return  from  the  exile  and  went  on  rolling 
uninterruptedly — however  dread  the  events  which  befel  the 
nation — until  about  a  thousand  years  after  the  destruction  of 
the  second  Temple,  may  be  comprised  under  the  general 
name  Midrash — "expounding."  The  two  chief  branches 
indicated  are,  Ealachah  (-|Sl,  "to  go"),  the  rule  by  which 
to  go,  =  binding,  authoritative  law;  and  Eaggadah  (TUT, 


ON  THE  TAKGUMS.  331 

"  to  say  ")  =  saying,  legend, — flights  of  fancy,  darting  up  from 
the  Divine  word.  The  Halachah,  treating  more  especially 
the  Pentateuch  as  the  legal  part  of  the  0.  T.,  bears  towards 
this  book  the  relation  of  an  amplified  and  annotated  Code ; 
these  amplifications  and  annotations,  be  it  well  understood, 
not  being  new  laws,  formerly  unheard  of,  deduced  in  an 
arbitrary  and  fanciful  manner  from  Scripture,  but  supposed 
to  be  simultaneous  oral  revelations  hinted  at  in  the  Scripture : 
in  any  case  representing  not  the  human  but  the  Divine  inter- 
pretation, handed  down  through  a  named  authority  (Kallala, 
Shemata — "something  received,  heard").  The  Haggadah, 
on  the  other  hand,  held  especial  sway  over  the  wide  field  of 
ethical,  poetical,  prophetical,  and  historical  elements  of  the 
O.  T.,  but  was  free  even  to  interpret  its  legal  and  historical 
passages  fancifully  and  allegorically.  The  whole  Bible,  with 
all  its  tones  and  colours,  belonged  to  the  Haggadah,  and  this 
whole  Bible  she  transformed  into  an  endless  series  of  themes 
for  her  most  wonderful  and  capricious  k  variations.  "  Pro- 
phetess of  the  Exile,"  she  took  up  the  hallowed  verse,  word 
or  letter,  and,  as  the  Halachah  pointed  out  in  it  a  special 
ordinance,  she,  by  a  most  ingenious  exegetical  process  of  her 
own,  showed  to  the  wonder-struck  multitude  how  the  woeful 
events  under  which  they  then  groaned  were  hinted  at  in  it, 
and  how  in  a  manner  it  predicted  even  their  future  issue. 
The  aim  of  the  Haggadah  being  the  purely  momentary  one 
of  elevating,  comforting,  edifying  its  audience  for  the  time 
being,  it  did  not  pretend  to  possess  the  slightest  authority.  As 
its  method  was  capricious  and  arbitrary,  so  its  cultivation 
was  open  to  every  one  whose  heart  prompted  him.  It  is  saga, 
tale,  gnome,  parable,  allegory, — poetry,  in  short,  of  its  own 
most  strange  kind,  springing  up  from  the  sacred  soil  of 
Scripture,  wild,  luxuriant,  and  tangled,  like  a  primeval 
tropical  forest.  If  the  Halachah  used  the  Scriptural  word  as 
a  last  and  most  awful  resort,  against  which  there  was  no 
further  appeal,  the  Haggadah  used  it  as  the  golden  nail  on 
which  to  hang  its  gorgeous  tapestry :  as  introduction,  refrain, 
text,  or  fundamental  stanza  for  a  gloss ;  and  if  the  former 
was  the  iron  bulwark  around  the  nationality  of  Israel,  which 


332 


ON  THE  TARGUMS. 


every  one  was  ready  at  every  moment  to  defend  to  his  last 
breath,  the  latter  was  a  maze  of  flowery  walks  within  those 
fortress-walls.  That  gradually  the  Haggadah  preponderated 
and  became  the  Midrash  /car  Qoyfiv  °f  ^ie  people,  is  not  sur- 
prising. We  shall  notice  how  each  successive  Targum 
became  more  and  more  impregnated  with  its  essence,  and 
from  a  version  became  a  succession  of  short  homiletics.  This 
difference  between  the  two  branches  of  Midrash  is  strikingly 
pointed  in  the  following  Talmudical  story :  "K.  Chia  b.  Abba, 
a  Halachist,  and  K.  Abbahu,  a  Haggadist,  once  came 
together  into  a  city  and  preached.  The  people  flocked  to 
the  latter,  while  the  former's  discourses  remained  without  a 
hearer.  Thereupon  the  Haggadist  comforted  the  Halachist 
with  a  parable.  Two  merchants  come  into  a  city  and  spread 
their  wares, — the  one  rare  pearls  and  precious  stones ;  the 
other  a  ribbon,  a  ring,  glittering  trinkets :  around  whom  will 
the  multitude  throng  ?  .  .  .  Formerly,  when  life  was  not  yet 
bitter  labour,  the  people  had  leisure  for  the  deep  word  of  the 
Law ;  now  it  stands  in  need  of  comfortings  and  blessings." 

The  first  collections  of  the  Halachah — embracing  the 
whole  field  of  juridico-political,  religious,  and  practical  life, 
both  of  the  individual  and  of  the  nation :  the  human  and 
Divine  law  to  its  most  minute  and  insignificant  details — were 
instituted  by  Hillel,  Akiba,  and  Simon  B.  Gamaliel ;  but  the 
final  redaction  of  the  general  code,  Mishnah,1  to  which  the 
later  Toseftahs  and  Boraithas  form  supplements,  is  due  to 
Jehudah  Hannassi  in  220  A.D.  Of  an  earlier  date  with 
respect  to  the  contents,  but  committed  to  writing  in  later 
times,  are  the  three  books :  Sifra,  or  Torath  Kohanim  (an 
amplification  of  Leviticus),  Sifri  (of  Numbers  and  Deutero- 
nomy), and  Meehiltha  (of  a  portion  of  Exodus).  The  masters 
of  the  Mishnaic  period,  after  the  Soferim,  are  the  Tannaim, 
who  were  followed  by  the  Amoraim.  The  discussions  and 
further  amplifications  of  the  Mishnah  by  the  latter,  form  the 


1  Mishnah,  from  shana,  "  to  learn," 
"  learning,"  not,  as  erroneously  trans- 
lated of  old,  and  repeated  ever  since, 
Aeurepwo-ts,  "repetition;"  but  corre- 
sponding exactly  with  Talmud,  (from 


lamad,  "  to  learn  "),  and  Torah  (from- 
horeli),  "  to  teach : "  all  three  terms 
meaning  "  the  study,"  by  way  of  emi- 


ON  THE  TARGUMS.  333 

Gemara  (Complement),  a  work  extant  in  two  redactions,  viz. 
that  of  Palestine  or  Jerusalem  (middle  of  4th  century),  and 
of  Babylon  (5th  century  A.D.),  which,  together  with  the 
Mishnah,  are  comprised  under  the  name  Talmud.  Here,  how- 
ever, though  the  work  is  ostensibly  devoted  to  Halachah,  an 
almost  equal  share  is  allowed  to  Haggadah.  The  Hagga- 
distic  mode  of  treatment  was  threefold :  either  the  simple 
understanding  of  words  and  things  (Peshat)  or  the  homiletic 
application,  holding  up  the  mirror  of  Scripture  to  the  present 
(Derusti),  or  a  mystic  interpretation  (Sod),  the  second  of 
which  chiefly  found  its  way  into  the  Targum.  On  its  minute 
division  into  special  and  general,  ethical,  historical,  esoteric, 
&c.,  Haggadah,  we  cannot  enter  here.  Suffice  it  to  add  that 
the  most  extensive  collections  of  it  which  have  survived  are 
Midrash  Kabbah  (commenced  about  700,  concluded  about 
1100  A.D.),  comprising  the  Pentateuch  and  the  five  Megilloth, 
and  the  Pesikta  (about  700  A.D.),  which  contains  the  most 
complete  cycle  of  Pericopes,  but  the  very  existence  of  which 
had  until  lately  been  forgotten,  surprisingly  enough,  through 
the  very  extracts  made  from  it  (Jalkut,  Pesikta  Eabbathi, 
Sutarta,  &c.). 

From  this  indispensable  digression  we  return  to  the  subject 
of  Targum.     The  Targums  now  extant  are  as  follows : — 

I.  Targum  on  the  Pentateuch,  known  as  that  of  Onkelos. 

II.  Targum  on  the  first  and  last  prophets,  known  as  that 
of  Jonathan  ben  Uzziel. 

III.  Targum  on  the  Pentateuch,  likewise  known  as  that  of 
Jonathan  ben  Uzziel. 

IV.  Targum    on   portions   of  the  Pentateuch,  known   as 
Targum  Jerushalmi. 

Y.  Targurns  on  the  Hagiographa,  ascribed  to  Joseph  the 
Blind,  viz. : — 

1.  Targum  on  Psalms,  Job,  Proverbs. 

2.  Targum  on  the  five  Megilloth  (Song  of  Songs,  Kuth, 
Lamentations,  Esther,  Ecclesiastes). 

3.  Two  (not  three,  as  commonly  stated)  other  Targums  to 
Esther  :  a  smaller  and  a  larger,  the  latter  known  as  Targum 
Sheni,  or  Second  Targum. 


334  ON  THE  TAKGUMS. 

VI.  Targum  to  Chronicles. 

VII.  Targum   to    Daniel,   known    from   an   unpublished 
Persian    extract,   and    hitherto    not    received   among    the 
number. 

VIII.  Targum  on  the  Apocryphal  pieces  of  Esther. 

We  have  hinted  before  that  neither  any  of  the  names 
under  which  the  Targums  hitherto  went,  nor  any  of  the  dates 
handed  down  with  them,  have  stood  the  test  of  recent 
scrutiny.  Let  it,  however,  not  for  a  moment  be  supposed 
that  a  sceptic  Wolfian  school  has  been  at  work,  and  with 
hypercritical  and  wanton  malice  has  tried  to  annihilate  the 
hallowed  names  of  Onkelos,  Jonathan,  and  Joseph  the  Blind. 
It  will  be  seen  from  what  follows  that  most  of  these  names 
have  or  may  have  a  true  historical  foundation  and  meaning ; 
but  uncritical  ages  and  ignorant  scribes  have  perverted  this 
meaning,  and  a  succession  of  most  extraordinary  misreadings 
and  strangest  varepa  Trporepa — some  even  of  a  very  modern 
date — have  produced  rare  confusion,  and  a  chain  of  assertions 
which  dissolve  before  the  first  steady  gaze.  That,  notwith- 
standing all  this,  the  implicit  belief  in  the  old  names  and 
dates  still  reigns  supreme  will  surprise  no  one  who  has  been 
accustomed  to  see  the  most  striking  and  undeniable  results 
of  investigation  and  ^criticism  quietly  ignored  by  contem- 
poraries, and  forgotten  by  generations  which  followed,  so  that 
the  same  work  had  to  be  done  very  many  times  over  again 
before  a  certain  fact  was  allowed  to  be  such. 

We  shall  follow  the  order  indicated  above : — 


I.  THE  TAEGUM  OF  ONKELOS. 

It  will  be  necessary,  before  we  discuss  this  work  itself,  to 
speak  of  the  person  of  its  reputed  author  as  far  as  it  con- 
cerns us  here.  There  are  few  more  contested  questions  in 
the  whole  province  of  Biblical,  nay  general  literature,  than 
those  raised  on  this  head.  Did  an  Onkelos  ever  exist  ?  Was 
there  more  than  one  Onkelos  ?  Was  Onkelos  the  real  form 
of  his  name  ?  Did  he  translate  the  Bible  at  all,  or  part  of 


ON  THE  TARGUMS.  335 

it  ?  And  is  this  Targum  the  translation  he  made  ?  Do  the 
dates  of  his  life  and  this  Targum  tally  ?  &c.  &c.  The  ancient 
accounts  of  Onkelos  are  avowedly  of  the  most  corrupted  and 
confused  kind:  so  much  so  that  both  ancient  and  modern 
investigators  have  failed  to  reconcile  and  amend  them  so  as 
to  gain  general  satisfaction,  and  opinions  remain  widely 
divergent.  This  being  the  case,  we  think  it  our  duty  to  lay 
the  whole — not  very  voluminous — evidence,  collected  both 
from  the  body  of  Talmudical  and  post-Talmudical  (so-called 
Kabbinical)  and  patristic  writings  before  the  reader,  in  order 
that  he  may  judge  for  himself  how  far  the  conclusions  to 
which  we  shall  point  may  be  right. 

The  first  mention  of  "  Onkelos  " — a  name  variously  derived 
from  Nicolaus  (G-eiger),  "Qvo^a  /ca\6<i  [sic]  (Kenan),  Homun- 
culus,  Avunculus,  &c. — more  fully  "  Onkelos  the  Proselyte," 
is  found  in  the  Tosiftah,  a  work  drawn  up  shortly  after  the 
Mishnah.  Here  we  learn  (1)  that  "Onkelos  the  Proselyte" 
was  so  serious  in  his  adherence  to  the  newly-adopted  (Jewish) 
faith,  that  he  threw  his  share  in  his  paternal  inheritance  into 
the  Dead  Sea  (Tos.  Demai,  vi.  9).  (2.)  At  the  funeral  of 
Gamaliel  the  Elder  (1st  century  A.D.)  he  burnt  more  than 
70  minaB  worth  of  spices  in  his  honour  (Tos.  Shabb.  8).  (3.) 
This  same  story  is  repeated,  with  variations  (Tos.  Semach. 
8).  (4.)  He  is  finally  mentioned,  by  way  of  corroboration  to 
different  Halachas,  in  connexion  with  Gamaliel,  in  three 
more  places,  which  complete  our  references  from  the  Tosiftah 
(Tos.  Mikv.  6,  1 ;  Kelim,  iii.  2,  2;  Chag.  3,  1).  The  Baby- 
Ionian  Talmud,  the  source  to  which  we  turn  our  attention 
next,  mentions  the  name  Onkelos  four  times :  (1.)  As 
"  Onkelos  the  Proselyte,  the  son  of  Kalonikos  "  (Callinicus  ? 
Cleonicus  ?),  the  son  of  Titus'  sister,  who,  intending  to  become 
a  convert,  conjured  up  the  ghosts  of  Titus,  Balaam,  and 
Christ  [the  latter  name  is  doubtful],  in  order  to  ask  them 
what  nation  was  considered  the  first  in  the  other  world. 
Their  answer  that  Israel  was  the  favoured  one  decided  him 
(Gitt.  56).  (2.)  As  "Onkelos  the  son  of  Kalonymus" 
(Cleonymus?)  (Aboda  Sar.  11  a).  It  is  there  related  of 
him  that  the  emperor  (Kaisar)  sent  three  Koman  cohorts  to 


336  ON  THE  TARGUMS. 

capture  him,  and  that  he  converted  them  all.  (3.)  In  Baba 
Bathra  99  a  (Boraitha),  "  Onkelos  the  Proselyte  "  is  quoted 
as  an  authority  on  the  question  of  the  form  of  the  Cherubim. 
And  (4)  the  most  important  passage — because  on  it  and 
it  alone,  in  the  wide  realm  of  ancient  literature,  has  been 
founded  the  general  belief  that  Onkelos  is  the  author  of  the 
Targum  now  current  under  this  name — is  found  in  Meg.  3  a. 
It  reads  as  follows :  "  K.  Jeremiah,  and,  according  to  others, 
E.  Chia  bar  Abba,  said :  The  Targum  to  the  Pentateuch  was 
made  by  the  *  Proselyte  Onkelos,'  from  the  mouth  of  K. 
Eliezer  and  E.  Jehoshua ;  the  Targum  to  the  Prophets  was 
made  by  Jonathan  ben  Uzziel  from  the  mouth  of  Haggai, 
Zechariah,  and  Malachi.  .  .  .  But  have  we  not  been  taught 
that  the  Targum  existed  from  the  time  of  Ezra  ?  .  .  .  Only 
that  it  was  forgotten,  and  Onkelos  restored  it."  No  mention 
whatever  is  to  be  found  of  Onkelos  either  in  the  Jerusalem 
Talmud,  redacted  about  a  hundred  years  before  the  Baby- 
lonian, nor  in  the  Church  fathers — an  item  of  negative 
evidence  to  which  we  shall  presently  draw  further  attention. 
In  a  Midrash  collection,  completed  about  the  middle  of  the 
12th  century,  we  find  again  "Onkelos  the  Proselyte"  asking 
an  old  man,  "Whether  that  was  all  the  love  God  bore 
towards  a  proselyte,  that  he  promised  to  give  him  bread  and 
a  garment  ?  Whereupon  the  old  man  replied  that  this  was 
all  for  which  the  Patriarch  Jacob  prayed  (Gen.  xxviii.  20)." 
The  Book  Zohar,  of  late  and  very  uncertain  date,  makes 
41  Onkelos"  a  disciple  of  Hillel  and  Shammai.  Finally,  a 
MS.,  also  of  a  very  late  and  uncertain  date,  in  the  library  of 
the  Leipzig  Senate  (B.  H.  17),  relates  of  "  Onkelos,  the 
nephew  of  Titus,"  that  he  asked  the  emperor's  advice  as  to 
*what  merchandise  he  thought  it  was  profitable  to  trade  in. 
The  emperor  told  him  that  that  should  be  bought  which 
was  cheap  in  the  market,  since  it  was  sure  to  rise  in  price. 
Whereupon  Onkelos  went  on  his  way.  He  repaired  to  Jeru- 
salem, and  studied  the  Law  under  E.  Eleazar  and  E.  Jehoshua, 
and  his  face  became  wan.  When  he  returned  to  the  court, 
one  of  the  courtiers  observed  the  pallor  of  his  countenance, 
and  said  to  Titus,  "  Onkelos  appears  to  have  studied  the  Law." 


ON  THE  TAEGUMS.  337 

Interrogated  by  Titus,  he  admitted  the  fact,  adding  that  he 
had  done  it  by  his  advice.  No  nation  had  ever  been  so 
exalted,  and  none  was  now  held  cheaper  among  the  nations 
than  Israel :  "  therefore,"  he  said,  "  I  concluded  that  in  the 
end  none  would  be  of  higher  price." 

This  is  all  the  information  to  be  found  in  ancient  autho- 
rities about  Onkelos  and  the  Targum  which  bears  his  name. 
Surprisingly  enough,  the  latter  is  well  known  to  the  Babylo- 
nian Talmud  (whether  to  the  Jerusalem  Talmud  is  question- 
able) and  the  Midrashim,  and  is  often  quoted,  but  never  once 
as  Targum  Onkelos.  The  quotations  from  it  are  invariably 
introduced  with  ^QinnDID,  "  As  we  [Babylonians]  trans- 
late;" and  the  version  itself  is  called  (e.g.  Kiddush.  49  a) 
TTT  Di:nJ"),  "  Our  Targum,"  exactly  as  Ephraim  Syrus  (Opp. 
i.  380)  speaks  of  the  Peshito  as  "  Our  translation." 

Yet  we  find  on  the  other  hand  another  current  version 
invariably  quoted  in  the  Talmud  by  the  name  of  its  known 
author,  viz.  D^py  Win,  "the  [Greek]  Version  of  Akilas:"  a 
circumstance  which,  by  showing  that  it  was  customary  to 
quote  the  author  by  name,  excites  suspicion  as  to  the  relation 
of  Onkelos  to  the  Targuin  Onkelos.  Still  more  surprising, 
however,  is,  as  far  as  the  person  of  Onkelos  is  concerned 
(whatever  be  the  discrepancies  in  the  above  accounts),  the 
similarity  between  the  incidents  related  of  him  and  those 
related  of  Akilas.  The  latter  (D^pJN  D^ptf)  is  said,  both 
in  Sifra  (Lev.  xxv.  7)  and  the  Jerusalem  Talmud  (Demai, 
xxvii.  d),  to  have  been  born  in  Pontus,  to  have  been  a  prose- 
lyte, to  have  thrown  his  paternal  inheritance  into  an  asphalt 
lake  (T.  Jer.  Demai,  25  d),  to  have  translated  the  Torah 
before  K.  Eliezer  and  K.  Joshua,  who  praised  him  (iD^p*  in 
allusion  perhaps  to  his  name,  D^py) ;  or,  according  to  the 
other  accounts,  before  E.  Akiba  (conip.  Jer.  Kidd.  1,1,  2,  &c. ; 
Jer.  Meg.  1,  11 ;  Babli  Meg.  3  a).  We  learn  further  that  he 
lived  in  the  time  of  Hadrian  (Chag.  2,  1),  that  he  was  the 
son  of  the  Emperor's  sister  (Tanch.  28,  1),  that  he  became 
a  convert  against  the  Emperor's  will  (ib.  and  Shem.  Kaba, 
146  c),  and  that  he  consulted  Eliezer  and  Jehoshua  about  his 
conversion  (Ber.  E.  78  d;  comp.  Midr.  Koh.l02fc).  tFirst  he 

z 


338 


ON  THE  TARGUMS. 


is  said  to  have  gone  to  the  former,  and  to  have  asked  him 
whether  that  was  all  the  love  God  bore  a  proselyte,  that  He 
promised  him  bread  and  a  garment  (Gen.  xxviii.  20).  "  See," 
he  said,  "what  exquisite  birds  and  other  delicacies  I  now 
have:  even  my  slaves  do  not  care  for  them  any  longer." 
Whereupon  K.  Eliezer  became  wroth,  and  said,  "Is  that 
for  which  Jacob  prayed,  *  And  give  me  bread  to  eat  and  a 
garment  to  wear/  so  small  in  thine  eyes  ? — Comes  he,  the 
proselyte,  and  receives  these  things  without  any  trouble  !  "- 
And  Akilas,  dissatisfied,  left  the  irate  Master  and  went  to 
E.  Joshua.  He  pacified  him,  and  explained  to  him  that 
'<  Bread  "  meant  the  Divine  Law,  and  "  Garment,"  the  Talith, 
or  sacred  garment  to  be  worn  during  prayer.  "And  not 
this  alone,  he  continued,  but  the  Proselyte  may  marry  his 
daughter  to  a  Priest,  and  his  offspring  may  become  a  High- 
Priest,  and  offer  burnt  offerings  in  the  Sanctuary."  More 
striking  still  is  a  Greek  quotation  from  Onkelos,  the  Chaldee 
translator  (Midr.  Echa,  58  c),  which  in  reality  is  found  in 
and  quoted  (Midr.  Shir  hashir.  27  d)  from  Akilas,  the  Greek 
translator. 

That  Akilas  is  no  other  than  Aquila  ('A/euXa?),  the  well- 
known  Greek  translator  of  the  Old  Testament,  we  need  hardly 
add.  He  is  a  native  of  Pontus  (Iren.  adv.  User.  3,  24 ;  Jer. 
De  Vir.  HI.  c.  54 ;  Philastr.  De  Eser.  §  90).  He  lived  under 
Hadrian  (Epiph.  De  Pond,  et  Hens.  §  12).  He  is  called  the 
TrevOepfoes  (Chron.  Alex.  Tro^epo?)  of  the  Emperor  (ib.  §  14), 
becomes  a  convert  to  Judaism  (§  15),  whence  he  is  called  the 
Proselyte  (Iren.  ib. ;  Jerome  to  Is.  viii.  14,  &c.),  and  receives 
instructions  from  Akiba  (Jer.  ib.).  He  translated  the  0.  T., 
and  his  Version  was  considered  of  the  ( highest  import  and 
authority  among  the  Jews,  especially  those  unacquainted  with 
the  Hebrew  language  (Euseb.  Pr&p.  Ev.  1.  c. ;  Augustin, 
Civ.  D.  xv.  23;  Philastr.  Hser.  90;  Justin.  Novell.  146). 
Thirteen  distinct  quotations1  from  this  Version  are  preserved 


1  Greek  quotations :— Gen.  xvii.  1, 
in  Beresb.  Rab.  51  6 ;  Lev.  xxiii.  40, 
Jer.  Succab,  3,  5,  fol.  53  d  (comp. 
Vaj.  Rab.  200  d) ;  Is.  iii.  20,  Jer. 
Sbabb.  6, 4,  fol.  8  &  ;  Ez.  xvi.  10,  Midr. 


Thren.  58  c ;  Ez.  xxiii.  43,  Vaj.  Rab. 
203  d:  Ps.  xlviii.  15  (Masor.  T.,  xlvii. 
according  to  LXX.),  Jer.  Meg.  2.  3, 
fol.  73  b :  Prov.  xviii.  21,  Vaj.  Rab. 
fol.  203  6;  Estb.  i.  6,  Midr.  Esth. 


ON  THE  TABGUMS.  339 

In  Talmud  and  Midrash,  and  they  tally,  for  the  most  part, 
with  the  corresponding  passages  preserved  in  the  Hexapla; 
and  for  those  even  which  do  not  agree,  there  is  no  need  to 
have  recourse  to  corruptions.  We  know  from  Jerome  (on 
Ezek.  iii.  15)  that  Aquila  prepared  a  further  edition  of  his 
Version,  called  by  the  Jews  fear  aicplf3eiav,  and  there  is  no 
reason  why  we  should  not  assume,  c&teris  paribus,  that  the 
differing  passages  belong  to  the  different  editions. 

If  then  there  can  be  no  reasonable  doubt  as  to  the  identity 
of  Aquila  and  Akilas,  we  may  well  now  go  a  step  further,  and 
from  the  threefold  accounts  adduced — so  strikingly  parallel 
even  in  their  anachronisms  and  contortions — safely  argue 
the  identity,  as  of  Akilas  and  Aquila,  so  of  Onkelos,  'the 
translator,'  with  Akilas  or  Aquila.  Whether  in  reality  a 
proselyte  of  that  name  had  been  in  existence  at  an  earlier 
date — a  circumstance  which  might  explain  part  of  the  con- 
tradictory statements;  and  whether  the  difference  of  the 
forms  is  produced  through  the  y  (ng,  nk),  with  which  we 
find  the  name  sometimes  spelt,  or  the  Babylonian  manner, 
occasionally  to  insert  an  n,  as  in  Adrianus,  which  we  always 
find  spelt  Awdrianus  in  the  Babylonian  Talmud ;  or  whether 
we  are  to  read  Gamaliel  II.  for  Gamaliel  the  Elder,  we 
cannot  here  examine ;  anything  connected  with  the  person  of 
an  Onkelos  no  longer  concerns  us,  since  he  is  not  the  author 
of  the  Targum ;  that  it  was  so,  being,  as  we  saw,  only  once 
ascribed  to  him  in  the  passage  of  the  Babylonian  Talmud 
(Meg.  3  a),  palpably  corrupted  from  the  Jerusalem  Talmud 
(Meg.  i.  9).  And  not  before  the  9th  century  (Pirke  der.  Eliezer 
to  Gen.  xlv.  27)  does  this  mischievous  mistake  seem  to  have 
struck  root,  while  even  from  that  time  three  centuries  elapsed, 
during  which  the  Version  was  quoted  often  enough,  without 
its  authorship  being  ascribed  to  Onkelos. 

From  all  this  it  follows  that  those  who,  in  the  face  of  this 
overwhelming  mass  of  evidence,  would  fain  retain  Onkelos 
in  the  false  position  of  translator  of  our  Targum,  must  be 


120  d;  Dan.  v.  5,  Jer.  Joma,  3,  8,  fol. 
41  a. — Hebrew  quotations,  re-translated 
from  the  Greek :—  Lev.  xix.  20,  Jer. 


Kid.  i.  1,  fol.  59  a ;  Dan.  viii.  13,  Ber. 

z  2 


Kab.  24c. — Chaldee  quotations :— Prov. 
xxv.  11 ;  Beresh.  Rab.  104  6;  Is.  v.  6, 
Midr.  Koli.  113,  c,  d. 


340  ON  THE  TAEGUMS. 

ready  to  admit  that  there  were  two  men  living  simultaneously 
of  most  astoundingly  similar  names  ;  both  proselytes  to  Ju- 
daism, both  translators  of  the  Bible,  both  disciples  of  E. 
Eliezer  and  E.  Jehoshua ;  it  being  of  both  reported  by  the 
same  authorities  that  they  translated  the  Bible,  and  that 
they  were  disciples  of  the  two  last-mentioned  Doctors;  both 
supposed  to  be  nephews  of  the  reigning  emperor  who  dis- 
approved of  their  conversion  (for  this  account  comp.  Dion 
Ixvii.  14,  and  Deb.  Eab.  2 ;  where  Domitian  is  related  to 
have  had  a  near  relative  executed  for  his  inclining  towards 
Judaism),  and  very  many  more  palpable  improbabilities  of 
the  same  description. 

The  question  now  remains,  why  was  this  Targum  called 
that  of  Onkelos  or  Akilas  ?  It  is  neither  a  translation  of  it, 
nor  is  it  at  all  done  in  the  same  spirit.  All  that  we  learn 
about  the  Greek  Version  shows  us  that  its  chief  aim  and 
purpose  was  to  counteract  the  LXX.  The  latter  had  at 
that  time  become  a  mass  of  arbitrary  corruptions — especially 
with  respect  to  the  Messianic  passages — as  well  on  the  Chris- 
tian as  on  the  Jewish  side.  It  was  requisite  that  a  trans- 
lation, scrupulously  literal  should  be  given  into  the  hands 
of  those  who  were  unable  to  read  the  original.  Aquila,  the 
disciple,  according  to  one  account,  of  Akiba — the  same  Akiba 
who  expounded  (darash)  for  Halachistic  purposes  the  seem- 
ingly most  insignificant  Particles  in  the  Scriptures  (e.g.  the 
DK,  sign  of  accusative ;  Gen.  E.  1 ;  Tos.  Sheb.  1 ;  Talm. 
Sheb.  26  a) — fulfilled  his  task  according  to  his  master's  method. 
"  Non  solum  verba  sed  et  etymologias  verborum  transferre 
conatus  est  .  .  .  .  Quod  Hebrasi  non  solum  habent  apOpa  sed 
et  7rpoap9pa,  ille  £a*o£??Xa)9  et  syllabas  interpretetur  et  lit- 
teras,  dictatque  cr  v  v  rbv  ovpavov  /cat  GVV  rrjv  yfjv  quod 
graaca  et  latina  lingua  non  recipit "  (Jer.cZe  Opt.  Gen.  interpret.). 
Targum  Onkelos,  on  the  other  hand,  is,  if  not  quite  a 
paraphrase,  yet  one  of  the  very  freest  versions.  Nor*  do  the 
two  translations,  with  rare  exceptions,  agree  even  as  to  the 
renderings  of  proper  nouns,  which  each  occasionally  likes  to 
transform  into  something  else.  But  there  is  a  reason.  The 
Jews  in  possession  of  this  most  slavishly  accurate  Greek 
Bible-text,  could  now  on  the  one  hand  successfully  combat 


ON  THE  TAKGUMS.  341 

arguments,  brought  against  them  from  interpolated  LXX. 
passages,  and  on  the  other  follow  the  expoundings  of  the 
School  and  the  Halachah,  based  upon  the  letter  of  the  Law, 
as  closely  as  if  they  had  understood  the  original  itself.  That 
a  version  of  this  description  often  marred  the  sense,  mattered 
less  in  times  anything  but  favourable  to  the  literal  meaning 
of  the  Bible.  It  thus  gradually  became  such  a  favourite  with 
the  people,  that  its  renderings  were  household  words.  If 
the  day  when  the  LXX.  was  made  was  considered  a  day  of 
distress  like  the  one  on  which  the  golden  calf  was  cast,  and 
was  actually  entered  among  the  fast  days  (8th  Tebeth ;  Meg. 
Taanith)  —  this  new  version,  which  was  to  dispel  the  mis- 
chievous influences  of  the  older,  earned  for  its  author  one  of 
the  most  delicate  compliments  in  the  manner  of  the  time. 
The  verse  of  the  Scripture  (Ps.  xlv.  3),  "  Thou  art  more 
beautiful  (jofjefiia)  than  the  sons  of  men,"  was  applied  to 
him — in  allusion  to  Gen.  ix.  27,  where  it  is  said  that  Japhet 
(i.e.  the  Greek  language)  should  one  day  dwell  in  the  tents 
of  Shern  (i.e.  Israel),  Meg.  1,  11,  71  I  and  c ;  9  b,  Ber.  Eab. 
40 1}. — Ovrco  yap  'A/cvXa?  SovXevwv  rfj  eftpaifcf]  Xef et  e/cSeScotcev 
elTTow  .  .  .  (friXoTi/Aorepov  TreTrio-revfJievos  Trapa  'lovSaioi?,  qppe- 
vevKevai,  rrjv  <ypa$r)v,  &c.  (Orig.  ad  Afric.  2). 

What,  under  these  circumstances,  is  more  natural  than  to 
suppose  that  the  new  Chaldee  Version — at  least  as  excellent 
in  its  way  as  the  Greek — was  started  under  the  name  which 
had  become  expressive  of  the  type  and  ideal  of  a  Bible- 
translation  ;  that,  in  fact,  it  should  be  called  a  Targum  done 
in  the  manner  of  Aquila: — Aquila-Targum.  Whether  the 
title  of  recommendation  was,  in  consideration  of  the  merits 
of  the  work  upon  which  it  was  bestowed,  gladly  endorsed  and 
retained — or,  for  aught  we  know,  was  not  bestowed  upon  it 
until  it  was  generally  found  to  be  of  such  surpassing  merit, 
we  need  not  stop  to  argue. 

Beiig  thus  deprived  of  the  dates  which  a  close  examina- 
tion into  the  accounts  of  a  translator's  life  might  have  fur- 
nished us,  we  must  needs  try  to  fix  the  time  of  our  Targum 
as  approximately  as  we  can  by  the  circumstances  under 
which  it  took  its  rise,  and  by  the  quotations  from  it  which 


342  ON  THE  TAKGUMS. 

we  meet  in  early  works.  Without  unnecessarily  going  into 
detail,  we  shall  briefly  record,  what  we  said  in  the  intro- 
duction, that  che  Targum  was  begun  to  be  committed  to 
writing  about  the  end  of  the  2nd  century,  A.D.  So  far,  how- 
ever, from  its  superseding  the  oral  Targum  at  once,  it  was 
on  the  contrary  strictly  forbidden  to  read  it  in  public  (Jer. 
Meg.  4,  1).  Nor  was  there  any  uniformity  in  the  version. 
Down  to  the  middle  of  the  2nd  century  we  find  the  masters 
most  materially  differing  from  each  other  with  respect  to  the 
Targum  of  certain  passages  (Seb.  54  a),  and  translations 
quoted  not  to  be  found  in  any  of  our  Targums.  The  neces- 
sity must  thus  have  pressed  itself  upon  the  attention  of  the 
spiritual  leaders  of  the  people  to  put  a  stop  to  the  fluctu- 
ating- state  of  a  version,  which,  in  the  course  of  time  must 
needs  have  become  naturally  surrounded  with  a  halo  of  au- 
thority little  short  of  that  of  the  original  itself.  We  shall 
thus  not  be  far  wrong  in  placing  the  work  of  collecting  the 
different  fragments  with  their  variants,  and  reducing  them 
into  one — finally  authorized  Version — about  the  end  of  the 
3rd,  or  the  beginning  of  the  4th  century,  and  in  assigning 
Babylon  to  it  as  the  birthplace.  It  was  at  Babylon,  that 
about  this  time  the  light  of  learning,  extinguished  in  the 
blood-stained  fields  of  Palestine,  shone  with  threefold  vigour. 
The  Academy  at  Nahardea,  founded  according  to  legend 
during  the  Babylonian  exile  itself,  had  gathered  strength  in 
the  same  degree  as  the  numerous  Palestinian  schools  began 
to  decline,  aud  when  in  259  A.D.  that  most  ancient  school 
was  destroyed,  there  were  three  others  simultaneously  flou- 
rishing in  its  stead  : — Tiberias,  whither  the  college  of  Pales- 
tinian Jabneh  had  been  transferred  in  the  time  of  Ga- 
maliel III.  (200) ;  Sora,  founded  by  Chasda  of  Kafri  (293) ; 
and  Pumbadita  founded  by  K.  Jehudah  b.  Jecheskeel  (297). 
And  in  Babylon  for  well  nigh  a  thousand  years  "  the  crown 
of  the  Law"  remained,  and  to  Babylon,  the  seat  of  the 
"Head  of  the  Golah"  (Dispersion),  all  Israel,  scattered  to 
the  ends  of  the  earth,  looked  for  its  spiritual  guidance.  That 
one  of  the  first  deeds  of  these  Schools  must  have  been  the- 
fixing  of  the  Targum,  as  soon  as  the  fixing  of  it  became 


ON  THE  TARGUMS.  343 

indispensable,  we  may  well  presume  ;  and  as  we  see  the  text 
fluctuating  down  to  the  middle  of  the  2nd  century,  we  must 
needs  assume  that  the  redaction  took  place  as  soon  after- 
wards as  may  reasonably  be  supposed.  Further  corrobo- 
rative arguments  are  found  for  Babylon  as  the  place  of  its 
final  redaction,  although  Palestine  was  the  country  where 
it  grew  and  developed  itself.  Many  grammatical  and  idio- 
matical  signs  —  the  substance  itself,  i.e.  the  words,  being 
Palestinian  —  point,  as  far  as  the  scanty  materials  in  our 
hands  permit  us  to  draw  conclusions  as  to  the  true  state  of 
language  in  Babylon,  to  that  country.  The  Targum  further 
exhibits  a  greater  linguistic  similarity  with  the  Babylonian, 
than  with  the  Palestinian  Gemara.  Again,  terms  are  found 
in  it  which  the  Talmud  distinctly  mentions  as  peculiar  to 
Babylon,1  not  to  mention  Persian  words,  which  on  Babylo- 
nian soil  easily  found  their  way  into  our  work.  One  of  the 
most  striking  hints  is  the  unvarying  translation  of  the  Targum. 
of  the  word  -)n3?  "  River,"  by  Euphrates,  the  River  of  Ba- 
bylon. Need  we  further  point  to  the  terms  above  mentioned, 
under  which  the  Targum  is  exclusively  quoted  in  the  Talmud 
and  the  Midrashim  of  Babylon,  viz.,  "Our  Targum,"  "As 
we  translate,"  or  its  later  designation  (Aruch,  Rashi,  Tosafoth, 
&c.)  as  the  "Targum  of  Babel"?  Were  a  further  proof 
needed,  it  might  be  found  in  the  fact  that  the  two  Babylonian 
Schools,  which,  holding  different  readings  in  various  places 
of  the  Scripture,  as  individual  traditions  of  their  own,  con- 
sequently held  different  readings  in  the  Targum  ever  since 
the  time  of  its  redaction. 

The  opinions  developed  here  are  shared  more  or  less  by 
some  of  the  most  competent  scholars  of  our  day  :  for  instance, 
Zunz  (who  now  repudiates  the  dictum  laid  down  in  his 
Gottesdienstl.  Vortr.y  that  the  translation  of  Onkelos  dates 
from  about  the  middle  of  the  first  century,  A.D.  ;  comp. 
Zeitschr.  1843,  p.  179,  note  3),  Gratz,  Levy,  Herzfeld,  Geiger, 
Frankel,  &c.  The  history  of  the  investigation  of  the  Targums, 
more  especially  that  of  Onkelos,  presents  the  usual  spectacle 


a  girl,"  is  rendered  by  60T1  ;  "  for  thus  they  call  in  Babylon  a 
young  girl,"  &0m  I0OT  *&&  P^P  P^  (Chag.  13  a). 


344  ON  THE  TARGUMS. 

of  vague  speculations  and  widely  contradictory  notions,  held 
by  different  investigators  at  different  times.  Suffice  it  to 
mention  that  of  old  authorities,  Keuchlin  puts  the  date  of  the 
Targum  as  far  back  as  the  time  of  Isaiah — notwithstanding 
that  the  people,  as  we  are  distinctly  told,  did  not  understand 
even  a  few  Aramaic  words  in  the  time  of  Jeremiah.  Follow- 
ing Asaria  de  Eossi  and  Eliah  Levita  (who,  for  reasons 
now  completely  disposed  of,  assumed  the  Targum  to  have 
first  taken  its  rise  in  Babylon  during  the  Captivity), 
Bellarmin,  Sixtus  Senensis,  Aldret,  Bartolocci,  Kich.  Simon, 
Hottinger,  Walton,  Thos.  Smith,  Pearson,  Allix,  Wharton, 
Prideaux,  Schickard,  take  the  same  view  with  individual 
modifications.  Pfeiffer,  B.  Meyer,  Steph.  Morinus,  on  the 
other  hand,  place  its  date  at  an  extremely  late  period,  and 
assign  it  to  Palestine.  Another  School  held  that  the  Targum 
was  not  written  until  after  the  time  of  the  Talmud — so  Wolf, 
Havermaim,  partly  Rich.  Simon,  Hornbeck,  Joh.  Morinus, 
&c. :  and  their  reasons  are  both  the  occurrence  of  "Tal- 
mudical  Fables"  in  the  Targum  and  the  silence  of  the 
Fathers.  The  former  is  an  argument  to  which  no  reply 
is  needed,  since  we  do  not  see  what  it  can  be  meant  to 
prove,  unless  the  "Kabbinus  Talmud"  has  floated  before 
their  eyes,  who,  according  to  t  Henricus  Seynensis  Capucinus J 
{Ann.  Eccl.  torn,  i.  261),  must  have  written  all  this  gigantic 
literature,  ranging  over  a  thousand  years,  out  of  his  own 
head,  in  which  case,  indeed,  every  dictum  on  record,  dating 
before  or  after  the  compilation  of  the  Talmud,  and  in  the 
least  resembling  a  passage  or  story  contained  therein,  must 
be  a  plagiarism  from  its  sole  venerable  author.  The  latter 
argument,  viz.  the  silence  of  the  Fathers,  more  especially 
of  Origen,  Jerome,  and  Epiphanius,  has  been  answered  by 
Walton  ;  and  what  we  have  said  will  further  corroborate  his 
arguments  to  the  effect,  that  they  did  not  mention  it,  not 
because  it  did  not  exist  in  their  days,  but  because  they  either 
knew  nothing  of  it,  or  did  not  understand  it.  In  the  person 
of  an  Onkelos,  a  Chaldee  translator,  the  belief  has  been 
general,  and  will  remain  so,  as  long  as  the  ordinary  Hand- 
books—  with  rare  exceptions — do  not  care  to  notice  the 


ON  THE  TAEGUMS.  345 

nncontested  results  of  contemporary  investigation.  How 
scholars  within  the  last  century  hare  endeavoured  to  re- 
concile the  contradictory  accounts  about  Onkelos,  more  par- 
ticularly how  they  have  striven  to  smooth  over  the  difficulty  of 
their  tallying  with  those  of  Akilas — as  far  as  either  had  come 
under  their  notice — for  this  and  other  minor  points  we  must 
refer  the  reader  to  Eichhorn,  Jahn,  Berthold,  Havernick,  &c. 

We  now  turn  to  the  Targum  itself. 

Its  language  is  Chaldee,  closely  approaching  in  purity 
of  idiom  to  that  of  Ezra  and  Daniel.  It  follows  a  sober  and 
clear,  though  not  a  slavish  exegesis,  and  keeps  as  closely  and 
minutely  to  the  text  as  is  at  all  consistent  with  its  purpose, 
viz.,  to  be  chiefly,  and  above  all,  a  version  for  the  people. 
Its  explanations  of  difficult  and  obscure  passages  bear  ample 
witness  to  the  competence  of  those  who  gave  it  its  final 
shape,  and  infused  into  it  a  rare  unity.  Even  where  foreign 
matter  is  introduced,  or,  as  Berkowitz  in  his  Hebrew  work 
Oteli  Or  keenly  observes,  where  it  most  artistically  blends 
two  translations,  one  literal,  and  one  figurative,  into  one  ;  it 
steadily  keeps  in  view  the  real  sense  of  the  passage  in  hand. 
It  is  always  concise  and  clear,  and  dignified,  worthy  of  the 
grandeur  of  its  subject.  It  avoids  the  legendary  character 
with  which  all  the  later  Targums  entwine  the  Biblical  word, 
as  far  as  ever  circumstances  would  allow.  Only  in  the 
poetical  passages  it  was  compelled  to  yield — though  reluc- 
tantly— to  the  popular  craving  for  Haggadah  ;  but  even  here 
it  chooses  and  selects  with  rare  taste  and  tact. 

Generally  and  broadly  it  may  be  stated  that  alterations 
are  never  attempted,  save  for  the  sake  of  clearness ;  tropical 
terms  are  dissolved  by  judicious  circumlocutions,  for  the 
correctness  of  which  the  authors  and  editors — in  possession 
of  the  living  tradition  of  a  language  still  written,  if  not 
spoken  in  their  day — certainly  seem  better  judges  than  some 
modern  critics,  who  through  their  own  incomplete  acquaint- 
ance with  the  idiom,  injudiciously  blame  Onkelos.  Highly 
characteristic  is  the  aversion  of  the  Targum  to  anthropo- 
pathies  and  anthropomorphisms  ;  in  fact,  to  any  term  which 
could  in  the  eyes  of  the  multitude  lower  the  idea  of  the 


346  ON  THE  TARGUMS. 

Highest  Being.'  Yet  there  are  many  passages  retained  in 
which  human  affections  and  qualities  are  attributed  to  Him. 
He  speaks,  He  sees,  He  hears,  He  smells  the  odour  of  sacri- 
fice, is  angry,  repents,  &c. — the  Targum  thus  showing  itself 
entirely  opposed  to  the  allegorising  and  symbolising  ten- 
dencies, which  in  those,  and  still  more  in  later  days,  were 
prone  to  transform  Biblical  history  itself  into  the  most 
extraordinary  legends  and  fairy  tales  with  or  without  a 
moral.  The  Targum,  however,  while  retaining  terms  like 
the  arm  of  God,  the  right  hand  of  God,  the  finger  of  God— 
for  Power,  Providence,  &c. — replaces  terms  like  foot,  front, 
back  of  God,  by  the  fitting  figurative  meaning.  We  must 
notice  further  its  repugnance  to  bring  the  Divine  Being  into 
too  close  contact,  as  it  were,  with  man.  It  erects  a  kind  of 
reverential  barrier,  a  sort  of  invisible  medium  of  awful  reve- 
rence between  the  Creator  and  the  creature.  Thus  terms 
like  "the  Word"  (Logos  =  Sansc.  Om),  "the  Shechinah" 
(Holy  presence  of  God's  Majesty,  "the  Glory"),  further, 
human  beings  talking  not  to,  but  "  before  "  God,  are  frequent. 
The  same  care,  in  a  minor  degree,  is  taken  of  the  dignity  of 
the  persons  of  the  patriarchs,  who,  though  the  Scripture  may 
expose  their  weaknesses,  were  not  to  be  held  up  in  their 
iniquities  before  the  multitude  whose  ancestors  and  ideals 
they  were.  That  the  most  curious  varepa  Trporepa  and 
anachronisms  occur,  such  as  Jacob  studying  the  Torah  in  the 
academy  of  Shem,  &c.,  is  due  to  the  then  current  typifying 
tendencies  of  the  Haggadah.  Some  extremely  cautious, 
withal  poetical,  alterations  also  occur  when  the  patriarchs 
speak  of  having  acquired  something  by  violent  means :  as 
Jacob  (Gen.  xlviii.  22),  by  his  "  sword  and  bow,"  which  two 
words  become  in  the  Targum,  "  prayers  and  supplications." 
But  the  points  which  will  have  to  be  considered  chiefly  when 
the  Targum  becomes  a  serious  study  —  as  throwing  the 
clearest  light  upon  its  time,  and  the  ideas  then  in  vogue 
about  matters  connected  with  religious  belief  and  exercises — 
are  those  which  treat  of  prayer,  study  of  the  law,  prophecy, 
angelology,  and  the  Messiah. 

The  only  competent  investigator  who,  after  Winer  (De 


ON  THE  TAEGUMS.  347 

OnMoso,  1820),  but  with  infinitely  more  minuteness  and 
thorough  knowledge  of  the  subject,  has  gone  fully  into  this 
matter,  is  Luzzatto.  Considering  the  vast  importance  of 
this,  the  oldest  Targum,  for  biblical  as  well  as  for  linguistic 
studies  in  general — not  to  mention  the  advantages  that 
might  accrue  from  it  to  other  branches  of  learning,  such 
as  geography,  history,  &c. :  we  think  it  advisable  to  give — 
for  the  first  time — a  brief  sketch  of  the  results  of  this 
eminent  scholar.  His  classical,  though  not  rigorously  metho- 
dical, Oheb  Ger  (1830)  is,  it  is  true,  quoted  by  every  one,  but 
in  reality  known  to  but  an  infinitely  small  number,  although 
it  is  written  in  the  most  lucid  modern  Hebrew. 

He  divides  the  discrepancies  between  Text  and  Targum 
into  four  principal  classes. 

(A.)  Where  the  language  of  the  Text  has  been  changed 
in  the  Targum,  but  the  meaning  of  the  former  retained. 

(B.)  Where  both  language  and  meaning  were  changed. 

(C.)  Where  the  meaning  was  retained,  but  additions  were 
introduced. 

(D.)  Where  the  meaning  was  changed,  and  additions  were 
introduced. 

He  further  subdivides  these  four  into  thirty-two  classes, 
to  all  of  which  he  adds,  in  a  most  thorough  and  accurate 
manner,  some  telling  specimens.  Notwithstanding  the  appa- 
rent pedantry  of  his  method,  and  the  undeniable  identity 
which  necessarily  must  exist  between  some  of  his  classes, 
a  glance  over  their  whole  body,  aided  by  one  or  two  ex- 
amples in  each  case,  will  enable  us  to  gain  as  clear  an 
insight  into  the  manner  and  "  genius "  of  the  Onkelos- 
Targum  as  is  possible  without  the  study  of  the  work  itself. 

(A.)  Discrepancies  where  the  language  of  the  text  has 
been  changed  in  the  Targum,  but  the  meaning  of  the  former 
has  been  retained. 

1.  Alterations  owing  to  the  idiom :  e.g.  the  singular,1 
"Let  there  be  [sit]  lights"  (Gen.  i.  14),  is  transformed  into 
the  plur.2  [sint]  in  the  Targum,  "man  and  woman,"3  as 


348  ON  THE  TARGUMS. 

applied  to  the  animals  (Gen.  vii.  2),  becomes,  as  unsuitable 
in  the  Aramaic,  "male  and  female."  l 

2.  Alterations  out  of  reverence  towards  God,  more  espe- 
cially for  the   purpose  of  doing  away  with  all  ideas  of  a 
plurality  of  the  Godhead :  e.  g.  the  terms  Adonai,  Elohim, 
are  replaced  by  Jehovah,  lest  these  might  appear  to  imply 
more  than  one  God.     Where  Elohim  is  applied  to  idolatry 
it  is  rendered  "  Error."  2 

3.  Anthropomorphisms,  where   they  could  be  misunder- 
stood and  construed  into  a  disparagement  or  a  lowering  of 
the  dignity  of  the  Godhead  among  the  common  people,  are 
expunged  :  e.  g.  for  "  And  God  sinelled  a  sweet  smell "  (Gen. 
viii.  21),  Onkelos  has  "And  Jehovah  received  the  sacrifice 
with  grace ; "  for  "  And  Jehovah  went 3   down  to  see  "the 
city "    (Gen.  xi.  5),  "  And  Jehovah  revealed  *   Himself,"  a 
term  of  frequent  use  in  the  Targum  for  verbs  of  motion,  such 
as  "  to  go  down,"  "  to  go  through,"  &c.,  applied  to  God.     "  I 
shall  pass  over5  you"  (Ex.  xii.  13),  the  Targum  renders  "  I 
shall  protect  you."  6     Yet  only  anthropomorphisms  which 
clearly  stand  figuratively  and  might  give  offence,  are  ex- 
punged, not  as   Maimonides,  followed  by  nearly  all  com- 
mentators,  holds,   all    anthropomorphisms,   for   words    like 
"  hand,  finger,  to  speak,  see,"  &c.   (see  above),  are  retained. 
But  where  the  words  remember,  think  of,7  &c.,  are  used  of 
God,  they  always,  whatever  their  tense  in  the  text,  stand  in 
the  Targum  in  the  present ;  since  a  past  or  future  would 
imply  a  temporary  forgetting  on  the  part  of  the  Omniscient.8 
A  keen  distinction  is  here  also  established  by  Luzzatto  be- 
tween >tn  and  *»^,  the  former  used  of  a  real  external  seeing, 
the  latter  of  a  seeing  "  into  the  heart." 

4.  Expressions  used  of  and  to  God  by  men  are  brought 
more  into  harmony  with  the  idea  of  His  dignity.      Thus 
Abraham's  question,  "  The  Judge  of  the  whole  earth,  should 
he  not  ($b)  do  justice  ?  "  (Gen.  xviii.  25)  is  altered  into  the 


npa 


8  Comp.  Prayer  for  Kosh  hashana, 
"131  nrOB>  fW,  "And  there  is  no 
forgetting  before  the  throne  of  Thy 
glory." 


ON  THE  TARGUMS.  349 

affirmative :  "  The  Judge  ....  verily  He  will  do  justice." 
Laban,  who  speaks  of  his  gods l  in  the  text,  is  made  to  speak 
of  his  religion 2  only  in  the  Targum. 

5.  Alterations  in  honour  of  Israel   and   their  ancestors. 
Rachel  " stole"3  the  Teraphim  (xxxi.  19)  is  softened  into 
Rachel  "took;"4  Jacob  "fled"5  from  Laban  (ib.  22),  into 
"  went ;  " 6    "  The   sons   of  Jacob   answered   Shechem  with 
craftiness  " 7  (xxxiv.  13),  into  "  with  wisdom."  8 

6.  Short  glosses  introduced  for  the  better  understanding 
of  the  text ;  "  for  it  is  my  mouth  that  speaks  to  you  "  (xlv. 
12),  Joseph  said  to  his  brethren :  Targum, "  in  your  tongue,"  9 
i.e.  without  an  interpreter.      "  The  people  who  had  made 
the  calf ; "  (Ex.  xxxii.  35)  Targum,  "  worshipped,"  10  since 
not  they,  but  Aaron  made  it. 

7.  Explanation   of   tropical   and   allegorical  expressions : 
"Be  fruitful  (lit.  'creep,'  from  ynttf)  and  multiply"  (Gen, 
i.  28),  is  altered  into  "  bear  children  ; "  n  "  thy  brother  Aaron 
shall  be  thy  prophet  "  12  (Ex.  vii.  1),  into  "thy  interpreter"  13 
(Meturgeman)  ;  "  I  made  thee  a  god  (Elohim)  to  Pharaoh  " 
(Ex.  vii.  1),  into  "  a  master ; "  u  "  to  a  head  and  not  to  a  tail " 
(Deut.  xxviii.  13),  into  "  to  a  strong  man  and  not  to  a  weak  ;"15 
and  finally,  "  Whoever  says  of  his  father  and  his  mother,  I 
saw   them   not "   (Deut.   xxxiii.   9),   into  "  Whoever  is  not 
merciful 16  towards  his  father  and  his  mother." 

8.  Tending  to  ennoble  the  language  :  the  "  washing  "  of 
Aaron  and  his  sons   is   altered   into   "  sanctifying ;  " 17   the 
"carcasses"18  of  the    animals  of  Abraham  (Gren.   xv.    11) 
become  "  pieces ; "  19  "  anointing  "  20  becomes  "  elevating,  rais- 
ing ; " 21  "  the' wife  of  the  bosom," 22 "  wife  of  the  covenant."  23 

9.  The  last  of  the  classes  where  the  terms  are  altered,  but 
the  sense  is  retained,  is  that  in  which  a  change  of  language 
takes  place  in  order  to  introduce  the  explanations  of  the  oral 


2 
4 

5  mia  6 

7  n)on)oa  8 

9   Jl^llt^Sl  10 

11 


13  "Si-onD         14  an 


15  ur  &i  wr  16 

17  jifcHp^  18 

19  N^S  (Dnna)  2o 
21 

23 


350  ON  THE  TAEGUMS. 

law  and  the  traditions :  e.g.  Lev.  xxiii.  11,  "  On  the  morrow 
after  the  Sabbath  l  (i.e.  the  feast  of  the  unleavened  bread) 
the  priest  shall  wave  it  (the  sheaf),"  Onkelos  for  Sabbath, 
feast-day.2  For  frontlets3  (Deut.  vi.  8),  Tefillin  (phylac- 
teries).4 

(B.)  Change  of  both  the  terms  and  the  meaning. 

10.  To  avoid  phrases  apparently  derogatory  to  the  dignity 
of  the  Divine  Being :  "  Am  I  in  God's  stead  ?  " 5  becomes  in 
Onkelos,  "  Dost  thou  ask  [children]  from  me  ?  6  from  before 
God  thou  shouldst  ask  them  "  (Gen.  xxx.  2). 

11.  In  order  to  avoid  anthropomorphisms  of  an  objection- 
able kind.     "With  the  breath  of  Thy  nose"7  ("blast  of 
Thy  nostrils,"  A.  V.,  Ex.  xv.  8),  becomes  "  With  the  word  of 
Thy  mouth." 8     "  And  I  shall  spread  my  hand  over  thee  " 9 
(Ex.  xxxiii.  22),  is  transformed  into  "  I  shall  with  my  word 
protect  thee."  10     "  And  thou  shalt  see  my  back  parts,11  but 
my  face 12  shall  not  be  seen  "  (Ex.  xxxiii.  23)  :  "  And  thou 
shalt  see  what  is  behind  me,13  but  that  which  is  before  me  14 
shall  not  be  seen  "  (Deut.  xxxiii.  12). 

12.  For  the  sake  of  religious  euphemisms :  e.g.  "  And  ye 
shall  be  like   God " 15   (Gen.  iii.  5),  is   altered   into   "  like 
princes."  16     "  A  laughter 17  has  God  made  me  "  (Gen.  xxi.  6), 
into  "  A  joy 18  He  gives  me  " — "  God  "  being  entirely  omitted. 

13.  In  honour  of  the  nation  and  its  ancestors :  e.g.  "  Jacob 
was  an  upright  man,  a  dweller  in  tents " 19  (Gen/  xxv.  27), 
becomes  "  an  upright  man,  frequenting  the  house  of  learn- 
ing." 20    "  One  of  the  people 21  might  have  lain  with  thy  wife" 
(Gen.  xxvi.  10) — "  One  singled  out  among  the  people,"22  i.e. 
the  king.     "  Thy  brother  came  and  took  my  blessing  with 
deceit " 23  (Gen.  xxvii.  35),  becomes  "  with  wisdom." 24 

14.  In  order  to  avoid  similes  objectionable  on  sesthetical 


6 


nnnn 


nmi 


13  nran  n>       l4 
15  l6 


18  xnn  l9 


20 


21  nyn  "inx    22 

23        "  24 


ON  THE  TARGUMS. 


351 


grounds-     "And  he 'will  bathe  his  foot  in  oil"1 — "And  he 
will  have  many  delicacies 2  of  a  king  "  (Deut.  xxxiii.  24). 

15.  In  order  to  ennoble  the  language.     "And  man  be- 
came a  living  being  " 3  (Gen.  ii.  7) — "  And  it  became  in  man 
a  speaking  spirit."  4     "  How  good  are  thy  tents, 5  0  Jacob 
— "  How  good  are  thy  lands,6  0  Jacob  "  (Num.  xxiv.  5). 

16.  In  favour  of  the  Oral  Law  and  the  Kabbinical  expla- 
nations.    "  And  go  into  the  land  of  Moriah  " 7  (Gen.  xxii.  2), 
becomes  "  into  the  land  of  worship  "  (the  future  place  of  the 
Temple).     "Isaac  went  to  walk8  in  the  field"  (Gen.  xxiv. 
63),  is  rendered  "  to  pray"  9     [Comp.  SAM.  PENT.,  p.  1114  ft], 
"  Thou  shalt  not  boil  a  kid  10  in  the  milk  of  its  mother " 
(Ex.  xxxiv.  26)  —  as  meat  and   milk,11   according  to  the 
Halachah. 

(C.)  Alterations  of  words  (circumlocutions,  additions,  &c.) 
without  change  of  meaning. 

17.  On  account   of  the  difference  of  idiom:  e.g.  "Her 
father's  brother"  12  (  =  relation),  (G-en.  xxix.  12),  is  rendered 
«  The  son  of  her  father's  sister." 13  "  What  God  does  u  (future) 
he   has   told   Pharaoh"   (Gen.  xli.  28)— "What   God  will 
do," 15  &c. 

18.  Additions  for  the  sake  of  avoiding  expressions  appa- 
rently derogatory  to  the  dignity  of  the  Divine  Being,  by 
implying  polytheism  and  the  like  :  "  Who  is  like  unto  Thee 16 
among  the  gods  ?  "  is  rendered,  "  There  is  none  like  unto 
Thee/7  Thou  art  God  "  (Ex.  xv.  11).     "  And  they  sacrifice  to 
demons  who  are  no  gods  " 18 — "  of  no  use  "  19t(Deut.  xxxii.  17). 

19.  In  order  to  avoid  erroneous  notions  implied  in  certain 
verbs  and  epithets  used  of  the  Divine  Being :  e.  g.  "  And 
the  Spirit  of  God20  moved"  (Gen.  i.  2)—"  A  wind  from  before 
the  Lord." 21     "  And  Noah  built  God  an  altar  " 22  (Gen.  viii. 


nn5? 


mm 


-  [Abraham  instituted,  ac- 
cording to  the  Midrash,  the  morning- 
(Shaharith),  Isaac  the  afternoon- 
(Minha),  and  Jacob  the  evening-prayer 
(Maarib).] 


-in 


|ni 


20  D^H'PX  nn  21  wrbx  DID  JD  nn 


352  ON  THE  TAEGUMS. 

20)— "an  altar  before1  the  Lord."  "And  God2  was  with 
the  boy  "  (Gen.  xxi.  20) — "  And  the  word  of  God  3  was  in 
aid  of  'the  boy."  "  The  mountain  of  God  "  (Ex.  iii.  1)— 
"The  mountain  upon  which  was  revealed  the  glory4  of 
God."  "The  staff  of  God"  (Ex.  iv.  20)— "  The  staff  with 
which  thou  hast  done  the  miracles  before 5  God."  "  And  I 
shall  see 6  what  will  be  their  end  " — "  It  is  open  (revealed) 
before  me,"  7  &c.  The  Divine  Being  is  in  fact  very  rarely 
spoken  of  without  that  spiritual  medium  mentioned  before  ; 
it  being  considered,  as  it  were,  a  want  of  proper  reverence  to 
speak  to  or  of  Him  directly.  The  terms  "  Before "  (Dip) 
"  Word"  (Ao7o?  N-|!^D)  "Glory"  (hnp\)  "Majesty"  (rm:Dttf), 
are  also  constantly  used  instead  of  the  Divine  name :  e.  g. 
"  The  voice  of  the  Lord  God  was  heard  "  (Gen.  iii.  8)—  "  The 
voice  of  the  Word."  "  And  He  will  dwell  in  the  tents  of 
Shem  "  (ix.  27)—"  And  the  Shechina  [Divine  Presence]  will 
dwell."  "  And  the  Lord  went  up  from  Abraham "  (Geo. 
xvii.  22)—"  And  the  glory  of  God  went  up."  "  And  God 
came  to  Abimelech  "  (Gen.  xx.  3) — "  And  the  word  from 
[before]  God  came  to  Abimelech." 

20.  For  the  sake  of  improving  seemingly  irreverential 
phrases  in  Scripture.     "Who  is  God  that  I  should  listen 
unto  His  voice  ?  "  (Ex.  v.  2) — "  The  name  of  God  has  not 
been  revealed  to  me,  that  I  should  receive  His  word."  8 

21.  In  honour   of  the  nation   and  its  ancestors.     "  Arid 
Israel  said  to  Joseph,  Now  I  shall  gladly  die  " 9  (Gen.  xlvL 
30),  which  might  appear  frivolous  in  the  mouth  of  the  patri- 
arch, becomes  "  I  shall  be  comforted 10  now."     "  And  he  led 
his  flock  towards  n  the  desert "  (Ex.  iii.  1) — "  towards  a  good 
spot  of  pasture 12  in  the  desert." 

22.  In  honour  of  the  Law  and  the  explanation  of  its  obscu- 
rities.    "To  days  and  years"  (Gen.  i.  14) — "that  days  and 
years  should  be  counted  by  them."  13     "  A  tree  of  knowledge 


3  ' 


P 


11  '»n  "iriN      12  "2  rrjn 
11  pra 


ON  THE  TARGUMS.  353 

of  good  and  evil " — "  A  tree,  and  those  who  eat  its  fruits  l 
will  distinguish  between  good  and  evil."  "  I  shall  not  further 
eurse  for  the  sake  of 2  man  "  (viii.  21) — *'  through  the  sin3  of 
man."  "  To  the  ground  shall  not  be  forgiven  the  blood 4 
shed  upon  it  "  (Num.  xxv.  33) — "the  innocent 5  blood." 

23.  For  the  sake  of  avoiding  similes,  metonymical  and 
allegorical  passages,  too  difficult  for  the  comprehension  of 
the  multitude:  e.g.  "Thy  seed  like  the  dust  of  the  earth" 
(Gen.  xiii.  16) — "  mighty  6  as  the  dust  of  the  earth."    "  I  am 
too  small  for  all  the  benefits  "  (Gen.  xxxii.  10)—"  My  good 
deeds 7  are  small."     "  And  the  Lord  thy  God  will  circumcise 
thy  heart  "— "  the  folly  of  thy  heart."  8 

24.  For  the  sake  of  elucidating  apparent  obscurities,  &c., 
in  the  written  Law.   "  Therefore  shall  a  man  leave  his  father 
and  his  mother  "  (Gen.  ii.  24) — "  the  home  " 9  (not  really  his 
parents).     "  The  will  of  Him  who  dwelleth  in  the  bush  "- 

"  of  Him  that  dwelleth  in  heaven 10  [whose  Shechinah  is  in 
heaven],  and  who  revealed  Himself  in  the  bush  to  Moses." 

25.  In  favour  of  the  Oral  Law  and  the  traditional  expla- 
nations generally.     "  He  punishes  the  sins  of  the  parents  on 
their  children "  (Ex.  xx.  5),  has  the  addition,  "  when  the 
children  follow  the  sins  of  their  parents  "  (comp.  Ez.  xviii. 
19).     "The  righteous  and  the  just  ye  shall  not  kill "  (Ex. 
xxiii.  7) — "  He  who  has  left  the  tribunal  as  innocent,  thou 
shalt  not  kill  him,"  i.e.,  according  to  the  Halacha,  he  is  not 
to  be  arraigned   again  for  the  same  crime.     "  Doorposts " 
(mesusoth)  (Deut.  vi.  9) — "  And  thou  shalt  write  them  .... 
and  affix  them  upon  the  posts,"  &c. 

(D.)  Alteration  of  language  and  meaning. 

26.  In  honour  of  the  Divine  Being,  to  avoid  apparent 
multiplicity  or  a  likeness.     "  Behold  man  will  be  like  one  of 
us,  knowing  good  and  evil "  (Gen.  iii.  22) — "  He  will  be  the 
only  one  in  the  world  u  to  know  good  and  evil."     "  For  who 


2   A 


354  ON  THE  TARGUMS. 

is  a  God  in  heaven  and  on  earth  who  could  do  like  Thy  deeds 
and  powers  ?  "  (Dent.  iii.  24)—"  Thou  art  God,  Thy  Divine 
Presence  (Shechinah)  is  in  heaven1  above,  and  reigns  on 
earth  below,  and  there  is  none  who  does  like  unto  Thy 
deeds,"  &c. 

27.  Alteration  of  epithets  employed  of  God.   "  And  before 
Thee  shall  I  hide  myself"  2  (Gen.  iv.  14)—"  And  before  Thee 
it  is  not  possible  to  hide." 3     "  This  is  my  God  and  I  will 
praise  4  Him,  the  God  of  my  father  and  I  will  extol 5  Him  " 
(Ex.  XV*  2) — "  This  is  my  God,  and  I  will  build  him  a  sanc- 
tuary ; 6   the  God  of  my  fathers,   and   I  will  pray  before 
Him." 7     "  In  one  moment  I  shall  go  up  in  thy  midst  and 
annihilate  thee" — "For   one   hour   will   I   take   away   my 
majesty 8  from  among  thee "  (since  no  evil  can  come  from 
above). 

28.  For  the  ennobling  of  the  sense.     "  Great  is  Jehovah 
above  all  gods  " — "  Great  is  God,  and  there  is  no  other  god 
beside  Him.''     "  Send  through  him  whom  thou  wilt  send  " 
(Ex.  iv.  13) — "  through  him  who  is  worthy  to  be  sent." 

29.  In  honour  of  the  nation  and  its  ancestors.     "  And  the 
souls  they  made 9  in  Haran  "  (Gen.  xii.  5) — "  the  souls  they 
made  subject  to  the  Divine  Law 10  in  Haran."     "  And  Isaac 
brought  her  into  the  tent  of  his  mother  Sarah  "  (Gen.  xxiv. 
67) — "  And  lo  righteous  were  her  works,11  like  the  works  of 
his  mother  Sarah."     "  And  he  bent  his  shoulder  to  bear,  and 
he  became  a  tributary  servant  "  (Gen.  xlix.  15) — "  And  he 
will  conquer  the  cities  of  the  nations  and  destroy  their  dwell- 
ing-places, and  those  that  will  remain  there  will  serve  him 
and  pay  tribute  to  him."     "People,  foolish  and  not  wise" 
(Deut.  xxxii.  6) — "People  who  has  received  the  Law  and 
has  not  become  wise."  12 

30.  Explanatory   of    tropical   and   metonymical  phrases. 
"  And  besides  thee  no  man  shall  raise  his  hand  and  his  foot 
in  the  whole  land  of  Egypt "  (Gen.  xli.  44)—"  There  shall 


11 


l-> 


pprn 


OX  THE  TARGUMS.  355 

not  a  man  raise  his  hand  to  seize  a  weapon,  and  his  foot  to 
ride  on  a  horse." 

31.  To  ennoble  or  improve  the  language.  "  Coats  of 
skin  "  (Gen.  iii.  21)—"  Garments  of  honour x  on  the  skin  of 
their  flesh."  "  Thy  two  daughters  who  are  found  with  thee  " 
(Gen.  xix.  15)—"  who  were  found  faithful  with  thee."  "  May 
Keuben  live  and  not  die  "  (Deut.  xxxiii.  6) — "  May  Eeuben 
live  in  the  everlasting  life." 

The  foregoing  examples  will,  we  trust,  be  found  to  bear 
out  sufficiently  the  judgment  given  above  on  this  Targum. 
In  spite  of  its  many  and  important  discrepancies,  it  never 
for  one  moment  forgets  its  aim  of  being  a  clear,  though  free, 
translation  for  the  people,  and  nothing  more.  Wherever  it 
deviates  from  the  literalness  of  the  text,  such  a  course,  in  its 
case,  is  fully  justified — nay,  necessitated — either  by  the 
obscurity  of  the  passage,  or  the  wrong  construction  that 
naturally  would  be  put  upon  its  wording  by  the  multitude. 
The  explanations  given  agree  either  with  the  real  sense,  or 
develop  the  current  tradition  supposed  to  underlie  it.  The 
specimens  adduced  by  other  investigators,  however  differently 
classified  or  explained,  are  easily  brought  under  the  fore- 
going heads.  They  one  and  all  tend  to  prove  that  Onkelos, 
whatever  the  objections  against  single  instances,  is  one  of 
the  most  excellent  and  thoroughly  competent  interpreters.  A 
few  instances  only — and  they  are  very  few  indeed — may  be 
adduced,  where  even  Onkelos,  as  it  would  appear,  "  dormitat." 
Far  be  it  from  us  for  one  moment  to  depreciate,  as  has  been 
done,  the  infinitely  superior  knowledge  both  of  the  Hebrew 
and  Chaldee  idioms  on  the  part  of  the  writers  and  editors  of 
our  document,  or  to  attribute  their  discrepancies  from  modern 
translations  to  ignorance.  They  drank  from  the  fullness  of 
a  highly  valuable  traditional  exegesis,  as  fresh  and  vigorous 
in  their  days  as  the  Hebrew  language  itself  still  was  in  the 
circles  of  the  wise,  the  academies  and  schools.  But  we  have 
this  advantage,  that  words  which  then  were  obsolete,  and 
whose  meaning  was  known  no  longer — only  guessed  at — are 


2  A  2 


356  ON  THE  TAKGUMS. 

to  us  familiar  by  the  numerous  progeny  they  have  produced 
in  cognate  idioms,  known  to  us  through  the  mighty  spread 
of  linguistic  science  in  our  days ;  and  if  we  are  not  aided  by 
a  traditional  exegesis  handed  down  within  and  without  the 
schools,  perhaps  ever  since  the  days  of  the  framing  of  the 
document  itself,  neither  are  we  prejudiced  and  fettered  by  it. 
Whatever  may  be  implied  and  hidden  in  a  verse  or  word,  we 
have  no  reason  to  translate  it  accordingly,  and,  for  the  attain- 
ing of  this  purpose,  to  overstrain  the  powers  of  the  roots. 
Among  such  small  shortcomings  of  our  translator  may  be 
mentioned  that  he  appears  to  have  erroneously  derived  j")N^ 
(Gen.  iv.  7)  from  NtW ;  that  nrD'O  (xx.  6)  is  by  him 
rendered  JTOIN;  TON  (Gen.  xli.  43)  by  NDW>  KIN ; 
"Qfo  (Deut.  xxiv.  5)  "T2N;  and  the  like.  Comp.  however 
the  Commentators  on  these  passages. 

The  bulk  of  the  passages  generally  adduced  as  proofs  of 
want  of  knowledge  on  the  part  of  Onkelos  have  to  a  great 
part  been  shown  in  the  course  of  the  foregoing  specimens 
to  be  intentional  deviations ;  many  other  passages  not  men- 
tioned merely  instance  the  want  of  knowledge  on  the  part 
of  his  critics. 

Some  places,  again,  exhibit  that  blending  of  two  distinct 
translations,  of  which  we  have  spoken ;  the  catchword  being 
apparently  taken  in  two  different  senses.  Thus  Gen.  xxii. 
13,  where  he  translates :  "  And  Abraham  lifted  up  his  eyes 
after  these,  and  behold  there  was  a  ram  ; "  he  has  not  "  in  his 
perplexity "  mistranslated  "tnN  for  *inN,  but  he  has  only 
placed  for  the  sake  of  clearness  the  ")HN  after  the  verb  (he 
saw),  instead  of  the  noun  (ram) ;  and  the  NTH,  which  is 
moreover  wanting  in  some  texts,  has  been  added,  not  as  a 
translation  of  inN  or  1HN,  but  in  order  to  make  the  passage 
more  lucid  still.  A  similar  instance  of  a  double  translation 
is  found  in  Gen.  ix.  6  :  "  Whosoever,  sheds  a  man's  blood,  by 
man  shall  his  blood  be  shed" — rendered  "  Whosoever  sheds 
the  blood  of  man,  by  witnesses  through"  the  sentence  of  the 
judges  shall  his  blood  be  shed ; "  D1N1,  by  man,  being  taken 
first  as  "witness,"  and  then  as  "judges." 

We  may  further  notice  the  occurrence  of  two  Messianic 


ON  THE  TARGUMS.  357 

passages  in  this  Targum :  the  one,  Gen.  xlix.  10,  Shiloh  ;  the 
other,  Num.  xxiv.  17,  "sceptre:"  both  rendered  "Messiah." 

A  fuller  idea  of  the  "Genius"  of  Onkelos  as  Translator 
and  as  Paraphrast,  may  be  arrived  at  from  the  specimens 
subjoined  in  pp.  387-392. 

We  cannot  here  enter  into  anything  like  a  minute  account 
of  the  dialect  of  Onkelos  or  of  any  other  Targum.  Kegard- 
ing  the  linguistic  shades  of  the  different  Targums,  we  must 
confine  ourselves  to  the  general  remark,  that  the  later  the 
version,  the  more  corrupt  and  adulterated  its  language. 
Three  dialects,  however,  are  chiefly  to  be  distinguished :  as 
in  the  Aramaic  idiom  in  general,  which  in  contradistinction 
to  the  Syriac,  or  Christian  Aramaic,  may  be  called  Judaeo- 
Aramaic,  so  also  in  the  different  Targums ;  and  their  recog- 
nition is  a  material  aid  towards  fixing  the  place  of  their 
origin ;  although  we^must  warn  the  reader  that  this  guidance 
is  not  always  to  be  relied  upon. 

1.  The  Galilean  Dialect,  known  and  spoken  of  already  in 
the  Talmud  as  the  one  which  most  carelessly  confounds  its 
sounds,  vowels  as  well  as  consonants.  "The  Galileans  are 
negligent  with  respect  to  their  language,1  and  care  not  for 
grammatical  forms"2  is  a  common  saying  in  the  Gemara. 
We  learn  that  they  did  not  distinguish  properly  between  B 
and  P  (i,  3),  saying  Tapula  instead  of  Tabula,  between 
Ch  and  K  (3  and  p)  saying  %etpto?  for  Kvpios.  Far  less 
could  they  distinguish  between  the  various  gutturals,  as  is 
cleverly  exemplified  in  the  story  where  a  Judaean  asked  a 
Galilean,  when  the  latter  wanted  to  buy  an  ")£N>  whether  he 
meant  ")pg  (wool),  or  "1DN  (a  lamb),  or  IpH  (wine),  or  "ibn 
(an  ass).  The  next  consequence  of  this  their  disregard  of 
the  gutturals  was,  that  they  threw  them  often  off  entirely  at 
the  beginning  of  a  word  per  aphseresin.  Again  they  con- 
tracted, or  rather  wedged  together,  words  of  the  most 
dissimilar  terminations  and  beginnings.  By  confounding 
the  vowels  like  the  consonants,  they  often  created  entirely 
new  words  and  forms.  The  Mappik  H  (n)  became  Ch 


vrapn 


358  ON  THE  TAKGUMS. 

(somewhat  similar  to  the  Scotch  pronunciation  of  the  initial 
H).  As  the  chief  reason  for  this  Galilean  confusion  of 
tongues  (for  which  comp.  Matt.  xxv7i.  73;  Mark  xiv.  70) 
may  be  assigned  the  increased  facility  of  intercourse  with 
the  neighbouring  nations  owing  to  their  northern  situation. 

2.  The  Samaritan  Dialect,  a  mixture  of  vulgar  Hebrew 
and  Aramean,  in  accordance  with  the  origin  of  the  people 
itself.     Its  chief  characteristics  are  the  frequent  use  of  the 
Ain  (which  not  only  stands  for  other  gutturals,  but  is  even 
used  as  mater  lectionis),  the  commutation  of  the  gutturals  in 
general,  and  the  indiscriminate  use  of  the  mute  consonants 
a  for  i,  p  for  3,  n  for  p,  &c. 

3.  The  Judaean  or  Jerusalem  Dialect  (comp.  Ned.  66  6) 
scarcely  ever  pronounces  the  gutturals  at  the  end  properly, 
often   throws  them  off  entirely.     Jeshua  becomes  Jeshu; 
Sheba — Shib.     Many  words  are  peculiar  to  this  dialect  alone. 
The  appellations  of  "door,"1  "light,"2  "reward,"3  &c.,  are 
totally  different  from  those  used  in  the  other  dialects.     Alto- 
gether all  the  peculiarities  of  provincialism,  shortening  and 
lengthening  of  vowels,  idiomatic  phrases  and  words,  also  an 
orthography  of  its  own,  generally  with  a  fuller  and  broader 
vocalisation,  are  noticeable  throughout  both  the  Targurns 
and  the  Talmud  of  Jerusalem,  which,  for  the  further  elucida- 
tion of  this  point  as  of  many  others  have  as  yet  not  found  an 
investigator. 

The  following  recognised  Greek  words,  the  greater  part  of 
which  also  occur  in  the  Talmud  and  Midrash,  are  found  in 
Onkelos :  Ex.  xxviii.  25,  4  @ijpv\\o<; ;  Ex.  xxviii.  11,  5  y\v(j)ij ; 
Gen.  xxviii.  17, 6  ISicon)? ;  Lev.  xi.  30,  7  KcoXoor^ ;  Ex.  xxviii. 

19,  8  Qpataas  (Plin.  xxxvii.  68)  ;   Ex.  xxxix.   11, 9  Kapxy- 
Sovioi,  comp.  Pes.  der.  Kah.'  xxxii.  (Carbunculi)  ;  Deut.  xx. 

20,  10  xapdKcojjia  (Ber.  K.  xcviii.) ;  Ex.  xxviii.  20,  "xpwpa; 
Num.  xv.  38,   Deut.  xxii.  12,  12  Kpda-TreSov ;   Ex.  xxx.  34, 


2 

3  "1D*ID  for  *13tf      4 
5  eta  G 

7 


io 


11  (N0»)  D1-Q  (Mich.  Lex.  Syr.  435, 
makes  it  Persian.} 


ON  THE  TAKGUMS.  359 


;  Gen.  xxxvii.  28,  2  \rjSov  ;  Ex.  xxiv.  16, 
Ex.  xxvi.  6,  4  TTopTrrj  ;  Gen.  vi.  14,  5  /ee'fyo?  ;  Ex.  xxviii.  19, 
9  tceyxpos  (Plin.  xxxvii.  4).  To  these  may  be  added  the  un- 
recognised 7  tcepapk  (Ex.  xxi.  18),  8  Xiffpovxys  or  \ej3p6wi 
(Gen.  xxx.  14),  &c. 

The  following1  short  rules  on  the  general  mode  of  tran- 
scribing the  Greek  letters  in  Aramaic  and  Syriac  (Targum, 
Talmud,  Midrash,  &c.),  may  not  be  out  of  place  :  — 

F  before  palatals,  pronounced  like  v,  becomes  j. 

Z  is  rendered  by  f. 

H  appears  to  have  occasionally  assumed  the  pronunciation 
of  a  consonant  (Digamma)  ;  and  a  •)  is  inserted. 

©  is  j"|,  T  ft.  But  this  rule,  even  making  allowances  for 
corruptions,  does  not  always  seem  to  have  been  strictly 
observed. 

K  is  p,  sometimes  3. 

M,  which  before  labials  stands  in  lieu  of  a  v,  becomes  j  : 
occasionally  a  j  is  inserted  before  labials  where  it  is  not 
found  in  the  Greek  word. 

B,  generally  DD>  sometimes,  however,  o  or  %2. 

II  is  3,  sometimes,  however,  it  is  softened  into  3. 

P  is  sometimes  altered  into  ^  or  3. 

fP  becomes  either  m  or  -n  at  the  beginning  of  a  word. 

5  either  o  or  f. 

The  spiritus  asper,  which  in  Greek  is  dropped  in  the 
middle  of  a  word,  reappears  again  sometimes  (a-vveSpot  — 
San/fcedrin).  Even  the  lenis  is  represented  sometimes  by  a  n 
at  the  beginning  of  a  word  ;  sometimes,  however,  even  the 
asper  is  dropped. 

As  to  the  vowels  no  distinct  rule  is  to  be  laid  down,  owing 
principally  to  the  original  want  of  vowel-points  in  our  texts. 

Before  double  consonants  at  the  beginning  of  a  word  an  K 
prostheticum  is  placed,  so  as  to  render  the  pronunciation 
easier.  The  terminations  are  frequently  Hebraised  :  —  thus 


omp 


360  ON  THE  TAKGUMS. 

01  is  sometimes  rendered  by  the  termination  of  the  Masc.  PL 
D%  &c. 

A  curious  and  instructive  comparison  may  be  instituted, 

between  tin's  mode  of  transcription  of  the  Greek  letters  into 
Hebrew,  and  that  of  the  Hebrew  letters  into  Greek,  as  found 
chiefly  in  the  LXX. 

N  sometimes  inaudible  (spirit,  len.)  'Aapcov;  'EX/cam ;  some- 
times audible  (as  spirit,  asper),  'A/Bpad/m, '  HXia?. 

3  =  f3:  'Pefie/c/ca  ^sometimes  (/>:  'Ia/ce/3%r)<p,  sometimes  v: 
(Paav,  sometimes  //,/3 :  Zepov/jL/3a{3e\,  sometimes  it  is  com- 
pletely changed  into  yu, :  'la/juvela  (2  Chr.  xxvi.  6). 

3  =  7:  Foyuep,  sometimes  K  :  AW^AT,  sometimes  ^  :  ^epoi>x- 

1  =  B:  once  =  r  MarpaiO  (Gen.  xxxvi.  39). 

H  =  N,  either  spirit,  asp.  like  'OSoppd,  or  spir.  len.  like 
'A/3e'X. 

1  =  v ,  not  the  vowel,  but  our  v :  "E^a,  Aevi :  thus  also  on 
(as  the  Greek  writers  often  express  the  Latin  v  by  ov) : 
'leaa-ovd :  sometimes  =  /3 :  'Zaftv  (Gen.  xiv.  5)  ;  sometimes 
it  is  entirely  left  out,  'Acrrt  for  Vashti. 

t=  £  sometimes  cr :  ^a(3ov\u>v,  Xacr/3t;  rarely  (•:  Bau£ 
(Gen.  xxii.  21). 

H,  often  entirely  omitted,  or  represented  by  a  spir.  len.  in 
the  beginning,  or  the  reduplication  of  the  vowel  in  the  middle 
or  at  the  end  of  the  word,  sometimes  =  ^ :  Kd/ju ;  sometimes 
=  K  :  Ta/3e/c  (Gen.  xxii.  24). 

JO  =  r:  Sa^ar;  sometimes  =  8:  <&oi>8  (Gen.  x.  6);  or  6  : 
'EXt^aXaS  (2  Sam.  v.  16). 

i  =  l:  'Ia/ca){3,  or  I  before  p  (-))  :  'lepeyiua?.  Between 
several  vowels  it  is  sometimes  entirely  omitted ;  'Ia>aSd. 

3  =  x '-  Xavadv ;  sometimes  K  :  2a/3a#a/ca  (Gen.  x.  7)  ; 
rarely  =  7 :  Ta^dwpeifjb. 

b,  5,  ")  =  ^>  v,  p ;  but  they  are  often  found  interchanged  i 
owing  perhaps  to  the  similarity  of  the  Greek  letters.  3  is 
sometimes  also  rendered  //,  (see  above). 

D  =  /A,  sometimes  /3 :  Ne/3/>wS,  2<?/3Xa  (1  Chr.  i.  47). 

Itf  and  D  =  cr :  2i>yu,eo>i>,  S^e//o,  StV. 

^  =  spr.  Zew-.:  'Ec^pcw^;  sometimes  =  7  (^)  r6fj,oppa; 
sometimes  /c,  'Ap/So/c  (Gen.  xxiii.  2). 


ON  THE  TAEGUMS.  361 


or  TT  : 

sometimes   f:    Oi/£    (Gen.  x.  23;    Cod, 
Alex.  "fl?  ;  xxii.  21  :  VH£.) 

p  =  «  :   BaXa/c*;  sometimes  %  :  Xerrovpd  ;  also  7  :   XeXey. 
r\  =  6  :  'Ia<j>e0  ;  sometimes  T  :  To%o?. 

As  to  the  Bible  Text  from  which  the  Targum  was  pre- 
pared, we  can  only  reiterate  that  we  have  no  certainty  what- 
ever on  this  head,  owing  to  the  extraordinarily  corrupt  state 
of  our  Targum  texts.     Pages  upon  pages  of  Variants  have 
been  gathered  by  Cappellus,  Kennicott,  Buxtorf,  De  Kossi, 
Clericus,  Luzzatto,  and  others,  by  a  superficial  comparison 
of  a  few  copies  only,  and  those  chiefly  printed  ones.     When- 
ever the  very  numerous  MSS.  shall  be  collated,  then  the 
learned  world  may  possibly  come   to  certain  probable  con- 
clusions  on   it.     It   would   appear,   however,   that   broadly 
speaking,  our  present  Masoretic  text  has  been  the  one  from 
which  the  Onk.  Version  was,  if  not  made,  yet  edited,  at  all 
events  ;  unless  we  assume  that  late  hands  have  been  inten- 
tionally busy  in  mutually  assimilating  text  and  translation, 
Many  of  the  inferences  drawn  by  De  Rossi  and  others  from 
the   discrepancies  of  the   version  to    discrepancies  of  the 
original  from  the  Masor.  Text,  must  needs   be  rejected  if 
Onkelos's  method  and  phraseology,  as  we  have  exhibited  it, 
are   taken   into   consideration.     Thus,   when,   Ex.   xxiv.  7, 
'-  before  the  people"  is  found  in  Onkelos,  while  our  Hebrew 
text  reads  "  in  the  ears,"  it  by  no  means  follows  that  Onkelos 
read  ^1K2  :  it  is  simply  his  way  of  explaining  the  unusual 
phrase,  to  which  he  remains  faithful  throughout.     Or,  "  Lead 
the  people  unto  the  place  (A.  V.)  of  which  I  have  spoken  J> 
(Ex.  xxxii.  34),  is  solely  Onkelos's  translation  of  T#N  bti, 
sell,  the  place,  and  no  DpD  need  be  conjectured  as  having 
stood  in  Onkelos's  copy  ;  as  also,  Ex.  ix.  7,  his  addition  "  From 
the  cattle  of  '  the  children  of  Israel"  does  not  prove  a  >3l 
to  have  stood  in  his  Codex. 

And  this  also  settles  (or  rather  leaves  unsettled),  the 
question  as  to  the  authenticity  of  the  Targumic  Texts,  such 
as  we  have  them.  Considering  that  no  MS.  has  as  yet  been. 


362  ON  THE  TAKGUMS. 

found  older  than  at  most  600  years,  even  the  careful  com- 
parison of  all  those  that  do  exist  would  not  much  further 
our  knowledge.  As  far  as  those  existing  are  concerned,  they 
teem  with  the  most  palpable  blunders,— not  to  speak  of 
variants,  owing  to  sheer  carelessness  on  the  part  of  the 
copyists; — but  few  are  of  a  nature  damaging  the  sense 
materially.  The  circumstance  that  Text  and  Targum  were 
often  placed  side  by  side,  column  by  column,  must  have  had 
no  little  share  in  the  incorrectness,  since  it  was  but  natural 
to  make  the  Targum  resemble  the  Text  as  closely  as  possible, 
while  the  nature  of  its  material  differences  was  often  unknown 
to  the  scribe.  In  fact,  the  accent  itself  was  made  to  fit  both 
the  Hebrew  and  the  Chaldee  wherever  a  larger  addition  did 
not  render  it  utterly  impossible.  Thus  letters  are  inserted, 
omitted,  thrust  in,  blotted  out,  erased,  in  an  infinite  number 
of  places.  But  the  difference  goes  still  further.  In  some 
Codices  synonymous  terms  are  used  most  arbitrarily  as  it 
would  appear :  njHN  and  tf/iDIN  earth,  D"IN  and  NtiOtf  man, 
rniN  and  "f^ilD  path,  HIPP  and  DTI^K,  Jehovah  and  Elohim, 
are  found  to  replace  each  other  indiscriminately.  In  some 
instances,  the  Hebrew  Codex  itself  has,  to  add  to  the  con- 
fusion, been  emendated  from  the  Targum. 

A  Masorah  has  been  written  on  Onkelos,  without,  however, 
any  authority  being  inherent  in  it,  and  without,  we  should 
say,  much  value.  It  has  never  been  printed,  nor,  as  far  as 
we  have  been  able  to  ascertain,  is  there  any  MS.  now  to  be 
found  in  this  country,  or  in  any  of  the  public  libraries  abroad. 
What  has  become  of  Buxtorfs  copy,  which  he  intended  to 
add  to  his  never  printed  "  Babylonia  " — a  book  devoted  to 
this  same  subject — we  do  not  know.  Luzzatto  has  lately 
found  such  a  "  Masorah "  in  a  Pentateuch  MS.,  but  he  only 
mentions  some  variants  contained  in  it.  Its  title  must  not 
mislead  the  reader ;  it  has  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  the 
Masorah  of  the  Bible,  but  is  a  recent  work,  like  the  Masorah 
of  the  Talmud,  which  has  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  the 
Talmud  Text. 

The  MSS.  of  Onkelos  are  extant  in  great  numbers — a 
circumstance  easily  explained  by  the  injunction  that  it  should 


ON  THE  TARGUMS.  363 

be  read  every  Sabbath  at  home,  if  not  in  the  Synagogue. 
The  Bodleian  has  5,  the  British  Museum  2,  Vienna  6, 
Augsburg  1,  Nuremberg  2.  Altdorf  1,  Carlsruhe  3,  Stuttgart 
2,  Erfurt  3,  Dresden  1,  Leipsic  1,  Jena  1,  Dessau  1,  Helin- 
stadt  2,  Berlin  4,  Breslau  1,  Brieg  1,  Kegensburg  1,  Hamburg 
7,  Copenhagen  2,  Upsala  1,  Amsterdam  1,  Paris  8,  Molsheim 
.1,  Venice  6,  Turin  2,  Milan  4,  Leghorn  1,  Sienna  1,  Genoa  1, 
Florence  5,  Bologna  2,  Padua  1,  Trieste  2,  Parma  about  40. 
Borne  18  more  or  less  complete  Codd.  containing  Onkelos. 

Editio  Princeps,  Bologna  1482,  fol.  (Abr.  b.  Chajjim)  with 
Hebr.  Text  andEashi.  Later  Edd.  Soria  1490,  Lisbon  1491, 
Constantinople  1505 :  from  these  were  taken  the  texts  in  the 
Complutensian  (1517)  and  the  Venice  (Bomberg)  Polyglotts 
(1518,  1526,  1547-49),  and  Buxtorfs  Kabbinical  Bible 
(1619).  This  was  followed  by  the  Paris  Polyglott  (1645), 
and  Walton's  (1657).  A  recent  and  much  emendated  edition 
dates  Wilna  1852. 

Of  the  extraordinary  similarity  between  Onkelos  and  the 
Samaritan  version  we  have  spoken  under  SAMAKITAN  PEN- 
TATEUCH [p.  429].  There  also  will  be  found  a  specimen  of 
both,  taken  from  the  Barberini  Codex.  Many  more  points 
connected  with  Onkelos  and  his  influence  upon  later  Herme- 
neutics  and  Exegesis,  as  well  as  his  relation  to  earlier  or 
later  versions,  we  have  no  space  to  enlarge  upon,  desirable 
as  an  investigation  of  these  points  might  be.  We  have, 
indeed,  only  been  induced  to  dwell  so  long  upon  this  single 
Targum,  because  in  the  first  instance  a  great  deal  that  has 
been  said  here  will,  mutatis  mutandis,  hold  good  also  for  the 
other  Targums;  and  further,  because  Onkelos  is  THE 
CHALDEE  VERSION  KCLT  G^O^V,  while,  from  Jonathan  down- 
wards, we  more  and  more  leave  the  province  of  Version  and 
gradually  arrive  from  Paraphrase  to  Midrash-Haggadah. 
We  shall  therefore  not  enter  at  any  length  into  these,  but 
confine  ourselves  chiefly  to  main  results. 


364  OX  THE  TABGUMS. 

II.  TAKGUM  ON  THE  PKOPHETS. 

viz.  Joshua,  Judges,  Samuel,  Kings,  Isaiah,  Jeremiah, 
Ezekiel,  and  the  twelve  Minor  Prophets, — called  TARGUM  OF 
JONATHAN  BEN  UZZIEL. 

Next  in  time  and  importance  to  Onkelos  on  the  Pentateuch 
stands  the  Targum  on  the  Prophets,  which  in  our  printed 
Edd.  and  MSS. — none  older,  we  repeat  it,  than  about  600 
years — is  ascribed  to  Jonathan  ben  Uzziel,  of  whom  the 
Talmud  contains  the  following  statements: — (1.)  "Eighty 
disciples  had  Hillel  the  Elder,  thirty  of  whom  were  worthy 
that  the  Shechinah  (Divine  Majesty)  should  rest  upon  them, 
as  it  did  upon  Moses  our  Lord ;  peace  be  upon  him.  Thirty 
of  them  were  worthy  that  the  sun  should  stand  still  at  their 
bidding  as  it  did  at  that  of  Joshua  ben  Nun.  Twenty  were 
of  intermediate  worth.  The  greatest  of  them  all  was  Jonathan 
b.  Uzziel,  the  least  K.  Johanan  b.  Saccai ;  and  it  was  said  of 
E.  Johanan  b.  Saccai,  that  he  left  not  (uninvestigated)  the 
Bible,  the  Mishnah,  the  Gemara,  the  Halachahs,  the  Hag- 
gadahs,  the  subtleties  of  the  Law,  and  the  subtleties  of  the 
Soferim  .  .  .  .  ;  the  easy  things  and  the  difficult  things 
[from  the  most  awful  Divine  mysteries  to  the  common 
popular  proverbs]  ...  If  this  is  said  of  the  least  of  them, 
what  is  to  be  said  of  the  greatest,  i.  e.  Jonathan  b.  Uzziel  ?  " 
(Bab.  Bath.  134 a;  comp.  Succ.  28  a).  (2.)  A  second  pas- 
sage (see  Onkelos)  referring  more  especially  to  our  present 
subject,  reads  as  follows:  "The  Targum  of  Onkelos  was 
made  by  Onkelos  the  Proselyte  from  the  mouth  of  E.  Eliezer 
and  E.  Jehoshua,  and  that  of  the  Prophets  by  Jonathan  b. 
Uzziel  from  the  mouth  of  Haggai,  Zechariah,  and  Malachi. 
And  in  that  hour  was  the  Land  of  Israel  shaken  three  hun- 
dred parasangs.  .  .  .  And  a  voice  was  heard,  saying,  '  Who 
is  this  who  has  revealed  my  secrets  unto  the  sons  of  man  ? ' 
Up  rose  Jonathan  ben  Uzziel  and  said :  '  It  is  I  who  have 
revealed  Thy  secrets  to  the  sons  of  man.  .  .  .  But  it  is  known 
and  revealed  before  Thee,  that  not  for  my  honour  have  I 
clone  it,  nor  for  the  honour  of  my  father's  house,  but  for 
Thine  honour ;  that  the  disputes  may  cease  in  Israel.'  .  .  . 


ON  THE  TAKGUMS.  .    365 

And  he  further  desired  to  reveal  the  Targum  to  the  Hagio- 
grapha,  when  a  voice  was  heard: — ' Enough.'  And  why? — 
because  the  day  of  the  Messiah  is  revealed  therein  (Meg.  3a)." 
Wonderful  to  relate,  the  sole  and  exclusive  authority  for  the 
general  belief  in  the  authorship  of  Jonathan  b.  Uzziel,  is  this 
second  Haggadistic  passage  exclusively;  which,  if  it  does 
mean  anything,  does  at  all  events  not  mean  our  Targurn, 
which  is  found  mourning  over  the  "  Temple  in  ruins,"  full  of 
invectives  against  Koine  (Sam.  xi.  5 ;  Is.  xxxiv.  9,  &c.  &c.), 
mentioning  Armillus  (Is.  x.  4)  (the  Antichrist),  Germauia 
(Ez.  xxxviii.  6) : — not  to  dwell  upon  the  thousand  and  one 
other  internal  and  external  evidences  against  a  date  anterior 
to  the  Christian  era.  If  interpolations  must  be  assumed, — 
and  indeed  Kashi  speaks  already  of  corruptions  in  his  MSS. 
— such  solitary  additions  are  at  all  events  a  very  different 
thing  from  a  wholesale  system  of  intentional  and  minute 
interpolation  throughout  the  bulky  work.  But  what  is  still 
more  extraordinary,  this  belief — long  and  partly  still  upheld 
most  reverentially  against  all  difficulties — is  completely 
modern :  that  is,  not  older  than  at  most  600  years  (the  date 
of  our  oldest  Targum  MSS.),  and  is  utterly  at  variance  with 
the  real  and  genuine  sources :  the  Talmud,  the  Midrash,  the 
Babylonian  Schools,  and  every  authority  down  to  Hai  Gaon 
(12th  cent.).  Frequently  quoted  as  this  Targum  is  in  the 
ancient  works,  it  is  never  once  quoted  as  the  Targum  of 
Jonathan.  But  it  is  invariably  introduced  with  the  formula : 
"  E.  Joseph l  (bar  Chama,  the  Blind,  euphemistically  called 
the  clear-sighted,  the  well-known  President  of  Pumbaditha 
in  Babylonia,  who  succeeded  Eabba  in  319  A.D.)  says,"  &c. 
(Moed  Katon  26  a,  Pesach.  68  a,  Sanh.  94  b).  Twice  even  it 
is  quoted  in  Joseph's  name,  and  with  the  addition,  "  Without 
the  Targum  to  this  verse  (due  to  him)  we  could  not  under- 
stand it."  This  is  the  simple  state  of  the  case :  and  for  more 
than  two  hundred  years  critics  have  lavished  all  their  acumen 
to  defend  what  never  had  any  real  existence,  or  at  best  owed 


1  "  Sinai,"    "  Professor  of  Wheat,"  in  allusion  to  his  vast  mastery  over 
the  traditions. 


366  ON  THE  TAKGUMS. 

its  apparent  existence  to  a  heading  added  by  a  superficial 
scribe. 

The  date  which  the  Talmud  thus  in  reality  assigns  to 
our  Targum  fully  coincides  with  our  former  conclusions  as 
to  the  date  of  written  Targums  in  general.  And  if  we  may 
gather  thus  much  from  the  legend  that  to  write  down  the 
Targum  to  the  Prophets  was  considered  a  much  bolder  under- 
taking— and  one  to  which  still  more  reluctantly  leave  was 
given — than  a  Targum  on  the  Pentateuch,  we  shall  not  be 
far  wrong  in  placing  this  Targum  some  time,  although  not 
long,  after  Onkelos,  or  about  the  middle  of  the  fourth  cen- 
tury ; — the  latter  years  of  K.  Joseph,  who,  it  is  said,  occupied 
himself  chiefly  with  the  Targum  when  he  had  become  blind. 
The  reason  given  for  that  reluctance  is,  although  hyper- 
bolically  expressed,  perfectly  clear :  "  The  Targum  on  the 
Prophets  revealed  the  secrets  " — that  is,  it  allowed  free  scope 
to  the  wildest  fantasy  to  run  riot  upon  the  prophetic  passages 
— tempting  through  their  very  obscurity, — and  to  utter 
explanations  and  interpretations  relative  to  present  events, 
and  oracles  of  its  own  for  future  times,  which  might  be 
fraught  with  grave  dangers  in  more  than  one  respect.  The 
Targum  on  the  Pentateuch  (permitted  to  be  committed  to 
writing,  Meg.  3  a ;  Kidd.  69  a)  could  not  but  be,  even  in  its 
written  form,  more  sober,  more  dignified,  more  within  the 
bounds  of  fixed  and  well-known  traditions,  than  any  other 
Targum;  since  it  had  originally  been  read  publicly,  and 
been  checked  by  the  congregation  as  well  as  the  authorities 
present ; — as  we  have  endeavoured  to  explain  in  the  Intro- 
duction. There  is  no  proof,  on  the  other  hand,  of  more  than 
fragments  from  the  Prophets  having  ever  been  read  and 
translated  in  the  synagogue.  Whether,  however,  B.  Joseph 
was  more  than  the  redactor  of  this  the  second  part  of  the 
Bible-Targum,  which  was  originated  in  Palestine,  and  was 
reduced  to  its  final  shape  in  Babylon,  we  cannot  determine. 
He  may  perhaps  have  made  considerable  additions  of  his  own, 
by  filling  up  gaps  or  rejecting  wrong  versions  of  some  parts. 
So  much  seems  certain,  that  the  schoolmen  of  his  Academy 
were  the  collectors  and  revisers,  and  he  gave  it  that  stamp 


ON  THE  TAEGUMS.  367 

of  unity  which  it  now  possesses,  spite  of  the  occasional  dif- 
ference of  style : — adapted  simply  to  the  variegated  hues  and 
dictions  of  its  manifold  biblical  originals. 

But  we  do  not  mean  to  reject  in  the  main  either  of  the 
Talmudical  passages  quoted.  We  believe  that  there  was 
such  a  man  as  Jonathan  b.  Uzziel,  that  he  was  one  of  the 
foremost  pupils  of  Hillel,  and  also  that  he  did  translate, 
either  privately  or  publicly,  parts  of  the  prophetical  books ; 
chiefly,  we  should  say,  in  a  mystical  manner.  And  so 
startling  were  his  interpretations — borne  aloft  by  his  high 
fame — that  who  but  prophets  themselves  could  have  revealed 
them  to  him  ?  And,  going  a  step  further,  who  could  reveal 
prophetic  allegories  and  mysteries  of  all  the  prophetic  books, 
but  those  who,  themselves  the  last  in  the  list,  had  the 
whole  body  of  sacred  oracles  before  them  ?  This  appears  to 
us  the  only  rational  conclusion  to  be  drawn  from  the  facts : 
— as  they  stand,  not  as  they  are  imagined.  That  nothing 
save  a  few  snatches  of  this  original  paraphrase  or  Midrash 
could  be  embodied  in  our  Targum,  we  need  not  urge.  Yet 
for  these  even  we  have  no  proof.  Zunz,  the  facile  princeps 
of  Targumic  as  well  as  Midrashic  investigation,  who,  as  late 
as  1830  (Gottesd.  Vortr.),  still  believed  himself  in  the  modern 
notion  of  Jonathan's  authorship  ("  first  half  of  first  century, 
A.D."),  now  utterly  rejects  the  notion  of  "our  possessing 
anything  of  Jonathan  ben  Uzziel "  (Geiger's  Zeitschr*  1837, 
p.  250). 

Less  conservative  than  our  view,  however,  are  the  views 
of  the  modern  School  (Rappoport,  Luzzatto,  Frankel,  G-eiger, 
Levy,  Bauer,  Jahn,  Bertholdt,  Levysohn,  &c.),  who  not  only 
reject  the  authorship  of  Jonathan,  but  also  utterly  deny 
that  there  was  any  ground  whatsoever  for  assigning  a  Targum 
to  him,  as  is  done  in  the  Talmud.  The  passage,  they  say, 
is  not  older,  but  younger  than  our  Targum,  and  in  fact  does 
apply,  erroneously  of  course,  to  this,  and  to  no  other  work  of 
a  similar  kind.  The  popular  cry  for  a  great  "  name,  upon 
which  to  hang" — in  Talmudical  phraseology — all  that  is 
cherished  and  venerated,  and  the  wish  of  those  eager  to 
impart  to  this  Version  a  lasting  authority,  found  in  Jonathan 


368  OST  THE  TARGUMS. 

the  most  fitting  person  to  father  it  upon.  Was  he  not  the 
greatest  of  the  great,  "  who  had- been  dusted  with  the  dust  of 
Hillel's  feet  ?  "  He  was  the  wisest  of  the  wise,  the  one  most 
imbued  with  knowledge  human  and  divine,  of  all  those  eighty, 
the  least  of  whom  was  worthy  that  the  sun  should  stay  its 
course  at  his  bidding.  Nay,  such  were  the  flames1  that 
arose  from  his  glowing  spirit,  says  the  hyperbolic  Haggadah, 
that  "  when  he  studied  in  the  Law,  the  very  birds  that  flew 
over  him  in  the  air,  were  consumed  by  fire  "  (nisrepliu 2 — not, 
as  Landau,  in  the  preface  to  his  Aruch,  apologetically  trans- 
lates, became  Seraphs).  At  the  same  time  we  readily  grant 
that  we  see  no  reason  why  the  great  Hillel  himself,  or  any 
other  much  earlier  and  equally  eminent  Master  of  the  Law, 
one  of  the  Soferim  perhaps,  should  not  have  been  fixed  upon . 
Another  suggestion,  first  broached  by  Drusius,  and  long 
exploded,  has  recently  been  revived  under  a  somewhat  modi- 
fied form.  Jonathan  (Godgiven),  Drusius  said,  was  none 
else  but  Theodotion  (Godgiven),  the  second  Greek  trans- 
lator of  the  Bible  after  the  LXX.,  who  had  become  a  Jewish 
proselyte.  Considering  that  the  latter  lived  under  Corn- 
modus  II.,  and  the  former  at  the  time  of  Christ ;  that  the 
latter  is  said  to  have  translated  the  Prophets  only  (neither 
the  Pentateuch,  nor  the  Hagiographa),  while  the  former 
translated  the  whole  Bible ;  that  Jonathan  translated  into 
Aramaic  and  Theodotion  into  Greek, — not  to  mention  the 
fact  that  Theodotion  was4  to  say  the  least,  a  not  very  com- 
petent translator,  since  "ignorance  or  negligence"  (Mont- 
faucon,  Pref.  to  Hexapla),  or  both,  must  needs  be  laid  at  the 
.  door  of  a  translator,  who,  when  in  difficulties,  simply  tran- 
scribes the  hard  Hebrew  words  into  Greek  characters,  with- 
out troubling  himself  any  further  ;3  while  the  mastery  over 
both  the  Hebrew  and  the  Aramaic  displayed  in  the  Jona- 
thanic  Version  are  astounding: — considering  all  this,  we 
need  not  like  Walton  ask  caustically,  why  Jonathan  ben 


1  The  simile  of  the  fire — "  as  the    3>eyyd>\,  or  $syyov\,  by  way  of  emcn- 
Law  was  given  in  fire  on  Sinai  "—is  a    dation  ;  Lev.  xiii.  6,  nnQDD,  Ma      ' 
favourite  one  in  the  Midrash.  -^    ....«,    _,/.     T 

ib.  nx^,   3,T)Q\  Lev.  xvm.  23, 


Lev.     vii.     13,    ?U£,    T. 


0a0eA;  Is.  Ixiv.  6,  DHJJ,  5E58i>. 


ON  THE  TARGUMS.  369 

Uzziel  should  not  rather  be  identified   with  the   Emperor 
Theodosius,  whose  name  also  is  "Godgiven;" — but  dismiss 
the  suggestion  as  Carpzov  long  since  dismissed  it.     We  are, 
however,  told  now  (Luzzatto,  Geiger,  &c.),  that  as  the  Ba- 
bylonian Targum  on  the  Pentateuch  was  called  a  Targuni 
"  in  the  manner  of  Aquila  or  Onkelos,"  i.e.  of  sterling  value, 
so  also  the  continuation  of  the  Babylonian  Targum,  which 
embraced  the  Prophets,  was  called  a  Targum  "  in  the  manner 
of  Theodotion"  =  Jonathan  ;  and  by  a  further  stretch,  Jona- 
than-Theodotion  became  the  Jonathan  b.  Uzziel.    We  cannot 
but   disagree  with  this  hypothesis   also — based  on  next  to 
nothing,  and  carried  to  more  than  the  usual  length  of  specu- 
lation. '  While  Akyla  is  quoted  continually  in  the  Talmud, 
and  is  deservedly  one  of  the  best  known  and  best  beloved 
characters,  every  trait  and  incident  of  whose  personal  history 
is  told   even  twice  over,  not  the  slightest  trace  of  such  a 
person  as  Theodotion  is  to  be  found  anywhere  in  the  Tal- 
mudical   literature.     What,   again,  was  it   that  could  have 
acquired   so   transcendent   a   fame   for  his  translation   and 
himself,   that  a  Version   put  into  the   mouths   of  the  very 
prophets  should   be  called   after  him,   "in   order  that  the 
people  should  like  it"? — a  translation  which  was,  in  fact, 
deservedly  unknown,  and,  properly  speaking,  no  translation 
at  all.     It  was,  as  we  learn,  a  kind  of  private  emendation  of 
some  LXX.  passages,  objectionable  to  the  pious  Proselyte  in 
their  then  corrupted  state.     It  was  only  the  Book  of  Daniel 
which  was  retained  from  Theodotion's  pen,  because  in  this 
book  the  LXX.  had  become  past  correction.     If,  moreover, 
the  intention  was  "  to  give  the  people  a  Hebrew  for  a  Greek 
name,  because  the  latter  might  sound  too  foreign,"  it  was  an 
entirely  gratuitous  one.    Greek  names  abound  in  the  Talmud, 
and  even  names  beginning  with  Theo  like  Theodoras  are  to 
be  found  there. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  opinion  has  been  broached  that 
this  Targum  was  a  post-Talmudical  production,  belonging 
to  the  7th  or  8th  cent.  A.D.  For  this  point  we  need  only 
refer  to  the  Talmudical  quotations  from  it.  And  when  we 
further  add,  that  Jo.  Morinus,  a  man  as  conspicuous  by  his 

2  B 


370  ON  THE  TARGUMS. 

want  of  knowledge  as  by  his  most  ludicrous  attacks  upon 
all  that  was  "  Jewish  "  or  "  Protestant"  (it  was  he,  e.g.  who 
wished  to  see  the  "  forged  "  Masoretic  Code  corrected  from 
the  Samaritan  Pentateuch,  q.v.)  is  the  chief,  and  almost 
only,  defender  of  this  theory,  we  have  said  enough.  On  the 
other  theory  of  there  being  more  than  one  author  to  our 
Targum  (Eichhorn,  Bertholdt,  De  Wette),  combated  fiercely 
by  Gesenius,  Havernick,  and  others,  we  need  not  further 
enlarge,  after  what  we  have  already  said.  It  certainly  is  the 
work,  not  of  one,  or  of  two,  but  of  twenty,  of  fifty  and  more 
Meturgemanim,  Haggadists,  and  Halachists.  The  edition, 
however,  we  repeat  it  advisedly,  has  the  undeniable  stamp 
of  one  master-mind  ;  and  its  individual  workings,  its  manner 
and  peculiarity  are  indelibly  impressed  upon  the  whole  labour 
from  the  first  page  to  the  last.  Such,  we  hold,  must  be  the 
impression  upon  every  attentive  reader ;  more  especially,  if 
he  judiciously  distinguishes  between  the  first  and  the  last 
prophets.  That  in  the  historical  relations  of  the  former, 
the  Version  must  be,  on  the  whole,  more  accurate  and  close 
(although  here  too,  as  we  shall  show,  Haggadah  often  takes 
the  reins  out  of  the  Meturgeman's  or  editor's  hands),  while 
in  the  obscurer  Oracles  of  the  latter  the  Midrash  reigns 
supreme :  is  exactly  what  the  history  of  Targumic  develop- 
ment leads  us  to  expect. 

And  with  this  we  have  pointed  out  the  general  character 
of  the  Targum  under  consideration.  Gradually,  perceptibly 
almost,  the  translation  becomes  the  rpdyrj^a,  a  frame,  so  to 
speak,  of  allegory,  parable,  myth,  tale,  and  oddly  masked 
history — such  as  we  are  wont  to  see  in  Talmud  and  Midrash, 
written  under  the  bloody  censorship  of  Esau-Rome ;  inter- 
spersed with  some  lyrical  pieces  of  rare  poetical  value.  It 
becomes,  in  short,  like  the  Haggadah,  a  whole  system  of 
Eastern  phantasmagorias  whirling  round  the  sun  of  the  Holy 
Word  of  the  Seer.  Yet,  it  is  always  aware  of  being  a  trans- 
lation. It  returns  to  its  verse  after  long  excurses,  often  in 
next  to  no  perceptible  connexion  with  it.  Even  in  the  midst 
of  the  full  swing  of  fancy,  swayed  to  and  fro  by  the  many 
currents  of  thought  that  arise  out  of  a  single  word,  snatches 


ON  THE  TAKGUMS.  371 

of  the  Terse  from  which  the  flight  was  taken  will  suddenly 
appear  on  the  surface  like  a  refrain  or  a  keynote,  showing 
that  in  a  reality  there  is  a  connexion,  though  hidden  to  the 
uninitiated.  For  long  periods  again,  it  adheres  most  strictly 
to  its  text  and  to  its  verse,  and  translates  most  conscien- 
tiously and  closely.  It  may  thus  fairly  be  described  as  hold- 
ing in  point  of  interpretation  and  enlargement  of  the  text, 
the  middle  place  between  Onkelos,  who  only  in  extreme  cases 
deviates  into  paraphrase,  and  the  subsequent  Targums,  whose 
connexion  with  their  texts  is  frequently  of  the  most  flighty 
character.  Sometimes  indeed  our  Targum  coincides  so  en- 
tirely with  Onkelos, — being,  in  fact,  of  one  and  the  same 
origin  and  growth,  and  a  mere  continuation  and  completion 
as  it  were  of  the  former  work,  that  this  similarity  has  misled 
critics  into  speculations  of  the  priority  in  date  of  either  the 
one  or  the  other.  Havernick,  e.g.  holds — against  Zunz — that 
Onkelos  copied,  plagiarised,  in  fact,  Jonathan.  We  do  not  see, 
quite  apart  from  our  placing  Onkelos  first,  why  either  should 
have  used  the  other.  The  three  passages  (Judg.  v.  26  and 
Deut.  xxii.  5 ;  2  K.  xiv.  6  and  Deut.  xxiv.  16 ;  Jer.  xlviii.  45, 
46  and  Num.  xxi.  28,  29)  generally  adduced,  do  not  in  the 
first  place  exhibit  that  literal  closeness  which  we  are  led  to 
expect,  and  which  alone  could  be  called  "copying;"  and  in 
the  second  place,  the  two  last  passages  are  not,  as  we  also 
thought  we  could  infer  from  the  words  of  the  writers  on 
either  side,  extraneous  paraphrastic  additions,  but  simply 
the  similar  translations  of  similar  texts :  while  in  the  first 
passage  Jonathan  only  refers  to  an  injunction  contained  in 
the  Pentateuch-verse  quoted.  But  even  had  we  found  such 
paraphrastic  additions,  apparently  not  belonging  to  the  sub- 
ject, we  should  have  accounted  for  them  by  certain  traditions 
— the  common  property  of  the  whole  generation, — being  re- 
called by  a  certain  word  or  phrase  in  the  Pentateuch  to  the 
memory  of  the  one  translator ;  and  by  another  word  or 
phrase  in  the  Prophets  to  the  memory  of  the  oilier  trans- 
lator. The  interpretation  of  Jonathan,  where  it  adheres  to 
the  text,  is  mostly  very  correct  in  a  philosophical  and  ex- 
egetical  sense,  closely  literal  even,  provided  the  meaning  of 

2  B  2 


372  ON  THE  TARGUMS. 

the  original  is  easily  to  be  understood  by  the  people.  When, 
however,  similes  are  used,  unfamiliar  or  obscure  to  the  people, 
it  unhesitatingly  dissolves  them  and  makes  them  easy  in 
their  mouths  like  household,  words,  by  adding  as  much  of 
explanation  as  seems  fit;  sometimes,  it  cannot  be  denied, 
less  sagaciously,  even  incorrectly,  comprehending  the  original 
meaning.  Yet  we  must  be  very  cautious  in  attributing  to  a 
Version  which  altogether  bears  the  stamp  of  thorough  com- 
petence and  carefulness  that  which  may  be  single  corruptions 
or  interpolations,  as  we  find  them  sometimes  indicated  by  an 
introductory  "  Says  the  Prophet " l :  although,  as  stated 
above,  we  do  not  hesitate  to  attribute  the  passages  displaying 
an  acquaintance  with  works  written  down  to  the  4th  century, 
and  exhibiting  popular  notions  current  at  that  time,  to  the 
Targum  in  its  original  state.  Generally  speaking,  and  hold- 
ing the  difference  between  the  nature  of  the  Pentateuch 
(supposed  to  contain  in  its  very  letters  and  signs  Halachistic 
references,  and  therefore  only  to  be  handled  by  the  Meturge- 
nian  with  the  greatest  care)  and  that  of  the  Prophets  (freest 
Homiletes  themselves)  steadily  in  view — the  rules  laid  down 
above  with  respect  to  the  discrepancies  between  Original 
and  Targum,  in  Onkelos,  hold  good  also  with  Jonathan. 
Anthropomorphisms  it  avoids  carefully.  Geographical  names 
are,  in  most  cases,  retained  as  in  the  Original,  and  where 
translated,  they  are  generally  correct.  Its  partiality  for 
Israel  never  goes  so  far  that  anything  derogatory  to  the 
character  of  the  people ;  should  be  willingly  suppressed,  al- 
though a  certain  reluctance  against  dwelling  upon  its  ini- 
quities and  punishments  longer  than  necessary,  is  visible. 
Where,  however,  that  which  redounds  to  the  praise  of  the 
individual — more  especially  of  heroes,  kings,  prophets — and 
of  the  community,  is  contained  in  the  text,  there  the  para- 
phrase lovingly  tarries.  Future  bliss,  in  this  world  and  the 
world  to  come,  liberation  from  the  oppressor,  restoration  of 
the  Sanctuary  on  Mount  Zion,  of  the  Kingdom  of  Jehovah 
and  the  House  of  David,  the  re-establishment  of  the  nation 


ON  THE  TARGUMS. 


373 


and  of  its  full  and  entire  independence,  as  well  as  of  the 
national  worship,  with  all  the  primitive  splendour  of  Priest 
and  Levite,  singer  and  musician  and  prophet — these  are  the 
favourite  dreams  of  the  people  and  of  Jonathan,  and  no  link 
is  overlooked  by  which  those  strains  may  be  drawn  in  as 
variations  to  the  Biblical  theme.  Of  Messianic  passages, 
Jonathan  has  pointed  out  those  mentioned  below ; l  a  number 
not  too  large,  if  we  consider  how,  with  the  increased  misery 
of  the  people,  their  ardent  desire  to  see  their  Deliverer 
appear  speedily  must  have  tried  to  find  as  many  places  in 
the  Bible  as  possible,  warranting  His  arrival.  So  far  from 
their  being  suppressed  (as,  by  one  of  those  unfortunate  acci- 
dents that  befall  sometimes  a  long  string  of  investigators, 
who  are  copying  their  information  at  third  and  fourth  hand, 
has  been  unblushingly  asserted  by  almost  everybody  up  to 
Gesenius,  who  found  its  source  in  a  misunderstood  sentence  of 
Carpzov),  they  are  most  prominently,  often  almost  pointedly 
brought  forward.  And  there  is  a  decided  polemical  animus 
inherent  in  them — temperate  as  far  as  appearance  goes, 
but  containing  many  an  unspoken  word :  such  as  a  fervent 
human  mind  pressed  down  by  all  the  woes  and  terrors,  written 
and  unwritten,  would  whisper  to  itself  in  the  depths  of  its 
despair.  These  passages  extol  most  rapturously  the  pomp 
and  glory  of  the  Messiah  to  come — by  way  of  contrast  to 
the  humble  appearance  of  Christ :  and  all  the  places  where 
suffering  and  misery  appear  to  be  the  lot  forecast  to  the 
Anointed,  it  is  Israel,  to  whom  the  passage  is  referred  by 
the  Targum. 

Of  further  dogmatical  and  theological  peculiarities  (and 
this  Targum.  will  one  day  prove  a  mine  of  instruction  chiefly 
in  that  direction,  besides  the  other  vast  advantages  inherent 
in  it,  as  in  the  older  Targums,  for  linguistic,  patristic,  geo- 
graphical, historical,  and  other  studies)  we  may  mention 
briefly  the  "  Stars  of  God  "  (Is.  xiv.  13 ;  comp.  Dan.  viii.  10, 


1  1  Sam.  ii.  10 ;  2  Sam.  xxiii.  3 ;  1 
K.  iv.  33;  Is.  iv.  2,  ix.  6,  x.  27,  xi. 
1,  6,  xv.  2,  xvi.  1,  5,  xxviii.  5,  xlii.  1, 
•xliii.  10,  xlv.  1,  lii.  13,  liii.  10;  Jer. 


xxiii.  5,  xxx.  21,  xxxiii.  13,  15 ;  HOP. 
iii.  5,  xiv.  8 ;  Mic.  iv.  8,  v.  2,  18  ; 
Zech.  iii.  8,  iv.  7,  vi.  12,  x.  4. 


374  ON  THE  TAEGUMS. 

2  Mace.  ix.  10,  being  referred — in  a  similar  manner — to  "  the- 
people  of  Israel;")  the  doctrine  of  the  second  death  (Isa. 
xxii.  14,  Ixv.  15),  &c.  As  to  the  general  nature  of  its  idiom, 
what  we  have  said  above  holds  good  here.  Likewise  our 
remarks  on  the  relation  between  the  text  of  the  Original 
of  Onkelos,  and  its  own  text,  may  stand  for  Jonathan,  who 
never  appears  to  differ  from  the  Masoretic  text  without  a 
very  cogent  reason.  Yet,  since  Jonathan's  MSS.,  though 
very  much  smaller  in  number,  are  in  a  still  worse  plight 
than  those  of  Onkelos,  we  cannot  speak  with  great  certainty 
on  this  point.  ^Respecting,  however,  the  individual  language 
and  phraseology  of  the  translation,  it  lacks  to  a  certain, 
though  small,  degree,  the  clearness  and  transparency  of  On- 
kelos ;  and  is  somewhat  alloyed  with  foreign  words.  Not  to 
such  a  degree,  however,  that  we  cannot  fully  endorse  Carpzov's 
dictum :  "  Cujus  nitor  sermonis  ChaldaBi  et  dictionis  laudatur 
puritas,  ad  Onkelosum  proxime  accedens  et  parum  deflectens 
a  puro  tersoque  Chaldaismo  biblico"  (Grit.  Saer.  p.  461),  and 
incline  to  the  belief  of  Wolf  (Bill  Heir.  ii.  1165) :  «  Qua? 
vero,  vel  quod  ad  voces  novas  et  barbaras,  vel  ad  res  setate 
ejus  inferiores,  aut  futilia  nonnulla,  quam.vis  pauca  triplicls 
hujus  generis  exstent,  ibi  occurrunt,  ex  merito  falsarii  cu jus- 
dam  ingenio  adscribuntur."  Of  the  manner  and  style  of 
this  Targum,  the  few  subjoined  specimens  will,  we  hope,  give 
an  approximate  idea. 

In  conclusion,  we  may  notice  a  feature  of  our  Targum,  not 
the  least  interesting  perhaps,  in  relation  to  general  or  "  human" 
literature :  viz.,  that  the  Shemitic  fairy  and  legendary  lore, 
which  for  the  last  two  thousand  years  —  as  far  as  we  can 
trace  it, — has  grown  up  in  East  and  West  to  vast  glittering 
mountain-ranges,  is  to  a  very  great  extent  to  be  found,  in 
an  embryo  state,  so  to  say,  in  this  our  Targum.  When  the 
literary  history  of  those  most  wonderful  circles  of  medieval 
sagas — the  sole  apparent  fruit  brought  home  by  the  crusaders 
from  the  Eastern  battle-fields — shall  come  to  be  written  by 
a  competent  and  thorough  investigator,  he  will  have  to 
extend  his  study  of  the  sources  to  this  despised  "fabulosus" 
Targum  Jonathan  ben  Uzziel.  And  the  entire  world  of 


ON  THE  TARGUMS. 


375 


pious  biblical  legend,  which  Islam  has  said  and  sung  in  the 
Arabic,  Persian,  Turkish,  and  all  its  other  tongues,  to  the 
delight  of  the  wise  and  the  simple  for  twelve  centuries  now, 
is  contained  almost  fully  developed,  from  beginning  to  end, 
but  clearer,  purer,  and  incomparably  more  poetically  con- 
ceived, in  our  Targum-Haggadah. 

The  Editio  Princeps  dates  Leiria,  1494.  The  later  editions 
are  embodied  in  the  Antwerp,  Paris,  and  London  Polyglotts. 
Several  single  books  have  likewise  been  repeatedly  edited 
(com.  Wolff,  Le  Long,  Kosenmuller,  &c.). 


JUDGES  V. 


AUTHORISED  VERSION. 


TARGUM   [JONATHAN  BEN  UZZIEL] 

TO  THE  PROPHETS. 


1  THEN  sang  Deborah  and  Barak 
the  son  of  Abinoam  on  that  day, 
saying, 


2  Praise  ye  the  LORD  for  the 
avenging  of  Israel,  when  the  people 
willingly  offered  themselves. 


1  AND  Deborah  and  Barak  the 
son  of  Abinoam  gave  praise  for  the 
miracle  and  the  salvation' which  were 
wrought  for  Israel  on  that  day,  and 
spake  : 

2  When  the  children  of  Israel 
rebel  against  the  Law,  then  the  na- 
tions come  over  them  and  drive  them 
out  of  their  cities ;  but  when  they 

return  to  do  the  Law,  then  they  are  mighty  over  their  enemies, 
and  drive  them  out  from  the  whole  territory  of  the  land  of  Israel. 
Thus  has  been  broken  Sisra  and  all  his  armies  to  his  punishment, 
and  to  a  miracle  and  a  salvation  for  Israel.  Then  the  wise  re- 
turned to  sit  in  the  houses  of  the  synagogue  .  .  .  and  to  teach 
unto  the  people  the  doctrine  of  the  Law.  Therefore  praise  ye 
and  bless  the  Lord. 

3  Hear,  ye  kings  (ye  who  came 
with  Sisra  to  the  battle-array),  listen, 
ye  rulers  [ye  who  were  with  Jabin 
the  king  of  Kenaan  :  not  with  your 
armies  nor  with  your  power  have  ye 


3  Hear,  0  ye  kings ;  give  ear,  0 
ye  princes ;  I,  even  I,  will  sing  unto 
the  LORD  ;  I  will  sing  praise  to  the 
LORD  God  of  Israel. 


conquered  and  become  mighty  over  the  house  of  Israel] — said 
Deborah  in  prophecy  before  God:  I  praise,  give  thanks  and 
blessings  before  the  Lord,  the  God 
of  Israel. 

4  [0  Lord,  Thy  Law  which  Thou 
gavest  to  Israel,  when  they  trans- 
gress it,  then  the  nations  rule  over 
them :  but  when  they  return  to  it, 
then  they  become  powerful  over 
their  enemies.]  0  Lord,  on  the  day 


4  LORD,  when  thou  wentest  out 
of  Seir,  when  thou  marchedst  out 
of  the  field  of  Edom,  the  earth 
trembled,  and  the  heavens  dropped, 
the  clouds  also  dropped  water. 


when  Thou  didst  reveal  Thyself  to  give  it  unto  them  from  Seir, 


376 


ON  THE  TAEGUMS. 


AUTHORISED  VERSION. 


[TARGUM  JONATHAN  BEN  UZZIEL] 
TO  THE  PROPHETS. 


5  The  mountains  melted  from 
before  the  LORD,  even  that  Sinai  from 
before  the  LORD  God  of  Israel. 


Thou  becamest  manifest  unto  them  in  the  splendour  of  Thy 
glory  over  the  territories  of  Edom :  the  earth  trembled,  the 

heavens  showered  down,  the  clouds 

dropped  rain. 

5  The  mountains  trembled  before 
the  Lord,  the  mountains  of  Tabor, 
the  mountain  of  Hermon,  and  the 
mountain    of  Carmel,   spake  with 

each  other,  and  said  one  to  the  other :  Upon  me  the  Shechinah 
will  rest,  and  to  me  will  it  come.  But  the  Shechinah  rested  upon 
Mount  Sinai,  which  is  the  weakest  and  smallest  of  all  the  moun- 
tains. .  .  .  This  Sinai  trembled  and  shook,  and  its  smoke  went 
up  as  goes  up  the  smoke  of  an  oven  :  because  of  the  glory  of  the 

God  of  Israel  which  had  manifested 

itself  upon  it. 

6  When  they  transgressed  in  the 
days  of  Shamgar  the  son  of  Anath 
in  the  days  of  Jael,  ceased  the  way- 
farers :   they   who  had  walked  in 
well-prepared  ways  had  again  to 
walk  in  furtive  paths. 

7  Destroyed  were  the  open  cities 
of  the  land  of  Israel :   their  inha- 
bitants were  shaken  off  and  driven 
about,  until  I,  Deborah,  was  sent  to 
prophesy  over  the  house  of  Israel. 

8  When  the  children  of  Israel 
went  to  pray  unto  new  idols  [errors], 
which  recently  had  come  to  be  wor- 
shipped, with  which  their   fathers 
did  not  concern  themselves,  there 

came  over  them  the  nations  and  drove  them  out  of  their  cities : 
but  when  they  returned  to  the  Law,  they  could  not  prevail 
against  them  until  they  made  themselves  strong,  and  Sisra  went 
up  against  them,  the  enemy  and  the  adversary,  with  forty  thou- 
sand chiefs  of  troops,  with  fifty  thousand  holders  of  the  sword, 
with  sixty  thousand  holders  of  spears,  with  seventy  thousand 
holders  of  shields,  with  eighty  thousand  throwers  of  arrows  and 
slings,  besides  nine  hundred  iron  chariots  which  he  had  with 
him,  and  his  own  chariots.  All  these  thousands  and  all  these 
hosts  could  not  stand  before  Barak  and  the  ten  thousand  men  he 
had  with  him. 

9  Spake  Deborah  in  prophecy  :  I 
am   sent  to  praise  the   scribes  of 
Israel,  who,  while  this  tribulation 
lasted,  ceased  not  to  study  in  the 
Law :    and  it  redounds  well  unto 

them  who  sat  in  the  houses  of  congregation,  wide  open,  and 
taught  the  people  the  doctrine  of  the  Law,  and  praised  and  ren- 

1  dered  thanks  before  the  Lord. 

10  Speak,  ye  that  ride  on  white  !      10  Those  who    had  interrupted 


6  In  the  days  of  Shamgar  the  son 
of  Anath,  in  the  days  of  Jael,  the 
highways  were  unoccupied,  and  the 
travellers  walked  through  byways. 


7  Tlie  inhabitants  of  the  villages 
oeased,  they  ceased  in  Israel,  until 
that  I  Deborah  arose,  that  I  arose  a 
mother  in  Israel. 

8  They  chose  new  gods ;  then  was 
war  in  the  gates ;  was  there  a  shield 
or  spear  seen  among  forty  thousand 
in  Israel  ? 


9  My  heart  is  toward  the  go- 
vernors of  Israel,  that  offered  them- 
selves willingly  among  the  people. 
Bless  ye  the  LORD. 


ON  THE  TAKGUMS. 


377 


AUTHORISED  VERSION. 


TARGUM  [JONATHAN  BEN  UZZIKL] 
TO  THE  PROPHETS. 


asses,  ye  that  sit  in  judgment,  and 
walk  by  the  way. 


their  occupations  are  riding  on  asses 
covered  with  many-coloured  capa- 
risons, and  they  ride  about  freely  in 

all  the  territory  of  Israel,  and  congregate  to  sit  in  judgment. 

They  walk  in  their  old  ways,  and  are  speaking  of  the  power  Thou 

hast  shown  in  the  land  of  Israel,  &c. 


JUDGES  XL 


39  AND  it  was  at  the  end  of  two 
months,  and  she  returned  to  her 
father,  and  he  did  unto  her  accord- 
ing to  the  vow  which  he  had  vowed  : 
and  she  had  known  no  man.  And 
it  became  a  statute  in  Israel, 

Addition  (nspin),  that  no  man 
should  offer  up  his  son  or  his  daugh- 
ter as  a  burnt-offering,  as  Jephta  the  Qileadite  did,  who  asked 
not  Phinehas  the  priest.  If  he  had  asked  Phinehas  the  priest, 
then  he  would  have  dissolved  his  vow  with  money  [for  animal 
sacrifices]. 


39  AND  it  came  to  pass,  at  the 
end  of  two  months,  that  she  re- 
turned unto  her  father,  who  did 
with  her  according  to  his  vow  which 
he  had  vowed :  and  she  knew  no 
man.  And  it  was  a  custom  in 
Israel. 


1  SAM.  II. 


1  AND  Hannah  prayed,  and  said, 
My  heart  rejoiceth  in  the  LORD  ; 
mine  horn  is  exalted  in  the  LORD  ; 
my  mouth  is  enlarged  over  mine 
enemies;  because  I  rejoice  in  thy 
salvation. 


1  AND  Hannah    prayed    in  the 
spirit  of  prophecy,  and  said:  [Lo, 
my  son  Samuel  will  become  a  pro- 
phet over  Israel ;  in  his  days  they 
will  be  i'reed  from  the  hand  of  the 
Philistines ;  and  through  his  hands 
shall  be  done  unto  them  wondrous 

and  mighty  deeds :  therefore]  be  strong  my  heart  in  the  portion 
which  God  gave  me.  [And  also  Heman  the  son  of  Joel,  the  son 
of  my  son  Samuel,  shall  arise,  he  and  his  fourteen  sons,  to  say 
praise  with  nablia  (harps  ?)  and  cythers,  with  their  brethren  the 
Levites,  to  sing  in  the  house  of  the  sanctuary :  therefore]  Let 
my  horn  be  exalted  in  the  gift  which  God  granted  unto  me. 
[And  also  on  the  miraculous  punishment  that  would  befal  the 
Philistines  who  would  bring  back  the  ark  of  the  Lord  in  a  new 
chariot,  together  with  a  sin-offering  :  therefore  let  the  congrega- 
tion of  Israel  say]  I  will  open  my  mouth  to  speak  great  things 

over  my  enemies ;  because  I  rejoice 

in  thy  salvation. 

2  [Over    Sanherib  the    king  of 
Ashur  did  she  prophesy,  and  she 
said:    He  will  arise  with   all  his 
armies  over  Jerusalem,  and  a  great 

sign  will  be  done  with  him.  There  shall  fall  the  corpses  of  his 
troops :  Therefore  praise  ye  all  the  peoples  and  nations  and 
tongues,  and  cry] :  There  is  none  holy  but  God ;  there  is  not 


2  TJiere  is  none  holy  as  the  LORD  : 
or  there  is  none  beside  thee,  neither 
5  there  any  rock  like  our  God. 


378 


ON  THE  TARGUMS. 


AUTHORISED  VERSION. 


TARGUM    [JONATHAN  BEN  UzZIEL] 

TO  THE  PROPHETS. 


beside  thee ;  and  Thy  people  shall  say,  There  is  none  mighty 
but  our  God. 

3  [Over  Nebuchadnezzar  the  king 
of  Babel  did  she  prophesy  and  say  r 
Ye  Chaldeans,  and  all  nations  who 
will  once  rule  over  Israel]     Do  not 
speak  grandly;    let  no  blasphemy 
go  out  from  your  mouth :  for  God 
knows  all,  and  over  all  his  servants 
he  extends  his  judgment ;  also  from 
you  he   will  take    punishment   of 
your  guilt. 

4  [Over  the  kingdom  Javan  she 
prophesied  and  said]   The  bows  of 
the  mighty  ones  [of  the  Javanites] 
will  be  broken ;  [and  those  of  the 
house  of  the  Asmoneans]  who  are 
weak,  to  them  will  be  done  miracles- 
and  mighty  deeds. 


3  Talk  no  more  so  exceeding 
proudly;  let  not  arrogancy  come 
out  of  your  mouth :  for  the  LORD  is 
a  God  of  knowledge,  and  by  him 
actions  are  weighed. 


4  The  bows  of  the  mighty  are 
broken,  and  they  that  stumbled  are 
girded  with  strength. 


1  SAM.  XVII. 


8  AND  he  stood  and  cried  unto 
the  armies  of  Israel,  and  said  unto 
them,  Why  are  ye  come  out  to  set 
your  battle  in  array  ?  Am  not  I  a 
Philistine,  and  ye  servants  to  Saul  ? 
choose  you  a  man  for  you,  and  let 
him  come  down  to  me. 


8  AND  he  arose  and  he  cried  unto 
the  armies  of  Israel,  and  said  unto 
them:  Why  have  you  put  your- 
selves in  battle  array  ?  Am  I  not 
the  Philistine,  and  you  the  servants 
of  Saul?  [I  am  Goliath  the  Phi- 
listine from  Gath,  who  have  killed 
the  two  sons  of  Eli,  the  priests- 
Chofna  and  Phinehas,  and  carried  captive  the  ark  of  the  covenant 
of  the  Lord,  I  who  have  carried  it  to  the  house  of  Dagon,  my 
Error,  and  it  has  been  there  in  the  cities  of  the  Philistines  seven 
months.  And  in  every  battle  which  the  Philistines  have  had  I 
went  at  the  head  of  the  army,  and  we  conquered  in  the  battle, 
and  we  strew  the  killed  like  the  dust  of  the  earth,  and  until  now 
have  the  Philistines  not  thought  me  worthy  to  become  captain  of 
a  thousand  over  them.  And  you,  0  children  of  Israel,  what 
mighty  deed  has  Saul  the  son  of  Kish  from  Gibeah  done  for  you 
that  you  made  him  king  over  you  ?  If  he  is  a  valiant  man,  let 
him  come  out  and  do  battle  with  me ;  but  if  he  is  a  weak  man], 
then  choose  for  yourselves  a  man,  and  let  him  come  out  against 
me,  &c. 


1  KINGS  XIX. 


11,  12  AND  he  said,  Go  forth, 
and  stand  upon  the  mount  before 
the  LORD.  And,  behold,  the  LORD 


11,  12  AND  he  said  [to  Elijah], 
Arise  and  stand  on  the  mountain 
before  the  Lord.  And  God  revealed 


ON  THE  TAEGUMS. 


AUTHORISED  VERSION. 


TARGUM  [JONATHAN  BEN  UZZIEL] 
TO  THE  PROPHETS. 


passed  by,  and  a  great  and  strong 
wind  rent  the  mountains,  and  brake 
in  pieces  the  rocks,  before  the  LOKD  ; 
l>ut  the  LORD  ivas  not  in  the  wind : 
and  after  the  wind  an  earthquake ; 
but  the  Lord  luas  not  in  the  earth- 
quake :  and  after  the  earthquake  a 
fire ;  ~but  the  LORD  was  not  in  the 
fire  :  and  after  the  fire  a  still  small 
voice. 


himself:  and  before  him  a  host  of 
angels  of  the  wind,  cleaving  the 
mountain  and  breaking  the  rocks 
before  the  Lord;  but  not  in  the 
host  of  angels  was  the  Shechinah. 
And  after  the  host  of  the  angels  of 
the  wind  came  a  host  of  angels  of 
commotion ;  but  not  in  the  host  of 
the  angels  of  commotion  was  the 
Shechinah  of  the  Lord.  And  after 
the  host  of  the  angels  of  commotion 

came  a  host  of  angels  of  fire  ;  but  not  in  the  host  of  the  angels 
of  fire  was  the  Shechinah  of  the  Lord.     But  after  the  host  of  the 
angels  of  the  fire  came  voices  singing 
in  silence. 

13  And  it  was  so,  when  Elijah  13  And  it  was  when  Elijah  heard 
heard  it,  that  he  wrapped  his  face  this,  he  hid  his  face  in  his  mantle,, 
in  his  mantle,  and  went  out,  and  and  he  went  out  and  he  stood  at 
stood  in  the  entering  in  of  the  cave :  the  door  of  the  cave ;  and,  lo !  with 
and,  behold,  there  came  a  voice  unto  him  was  a  voice,  saying,  What 
him,  and  said,  What  doest  thou  doest  thou  here,  0  Elijah  !  &c. 
here,  Elijah? 


ISAIAH  XXXIII. 


22  FOR  the  LORD  is  our  judge, 
the  LORD  is  our  lawgiver,  the  LORD 
is  our  king ;  he  will  save  us. 


22  FOR  the  Lord  is  our  judge, 
who  delivered  us  with  his  power 
from  Mizraim  ;  the  Lord  is  our 
teacher,  for  He  has  given  us  the 
doctrine  of  the  Torah  from  Sinai ;  the  Lord  is  our  king :  He 
will  deliver  us,  and  give  us  righteous  restitution  from  the  army 
of  Gog. 


JEEEMIAH  X. 


11  THUS  shall  ye  say  unto  them, 
The  gods  that  have  not  made  the 
heavens  and  the  earth,  even  they 
shall  perish  from  the  earth,  and 
from  under  these  heavens. 


11  THIS  is  the  copy  of  the  letter 
which  Jeremiah  the  prophet  sent  to 
the  remaining  ancient  ones  of  the 
captivity  in  Babel :  "  And  if  the 
nations  among  whom  you  are  will 
say  unto  you,  Pray  to  our  Errors : — 
0  house  of  Israel,  then  you  shall  answer  thus,  and  speak  in  this 
wise :  The  Errors  unto  which  you  pray  are  Errors  which  are  of 
no  use  :  they  cannot  rain  from  heaven ;  they  cannot  cause  fruit 
to  grow  from  the  earth.  They  and  their  worshippers  will  perish 
from  the  earth,  and  will  be  destroyed  from  under  these  heavens." 


580 


ON  THE  TAEGUMS. 
MlCAH  VI. 


AUTHORISED  VERSION. 


TARGUM   [JONATHAN  BEN  UzZIEL] 

TO  THE  PROPHETS. 


4  FOR  I  brought  thee  up  out  of 
the  land  of  Egypt,  and  redeemed 
thee  out  of  the  house  of  servants ; 
and  I  sent  before  thee  Moses,  Aaron, 
and  Miriam. 


4  FOE  I  have  taken  thee  out  from 
the  land  of  Mizraim,  and  have  re- 
leased thee  from  the  house  of  thy 
bondage ;  and  have  sent  before  thee 
three  prophets :  Moses,  to  teach 
thee  the  tradition  of  the  ordinances ; 
Aaron,  to  atone  for  the  people ;  and 
Miriam  to  teach  the  women. 


III.  AND  IV.  TAEGUM  OP  JONATHAN  BEN  UZZIEL  AND 
JEKUSHALMI-TAEGUM  ON  THE  PENTATEUCH. 

Onkelos  and  Jonathan  on  the  Pentateuch  and  Prophets, 
whatever  be  their  exact  date,  place,  authorship  and  editor- 
ship, are,  as  we  have  endeavoured  to  show,  the  oldest  of 
existing  Targums,  and  belong,  in  their  present  shape,  to 
Babylon  and  the  Babylonian  academies  nourishing  between 
the  3rd  and  4th  centuries  A.D.  But  precisely  as  two  parallel 
and  independent  developments  of  the  Oral  Law  (^ibh) 
have  sprung  up  in  the  Palestinian  and  Babylonian  Talmuds 
respectively,  so  also  recent  investigation  has  proved  to 
demonstration  the  existence  of  two  distinct  cycles  of  Targums 
on  the  Written  Law  (njirnttffl)— *• e-  the  entire  body  of 
the  Old  Testament.  Both  are  the  offspring  of  the  old, 
primitive  institution  of  the  public  "  reading  and  translating 
of  the  Torab,"  which  for  many  hundred  years  had  its  place 
in  the  Palestinian  synagogues.  The  one  first  collected, 
revised,  and  edited  in  Babylon,  called— more  especially  that 
part  of  it  which  embraced  the  Pentateuch  (Onkelos)— the 
Babylonian,  Ours,  by  way  of  eminence,  on  account  of  the 
superior  authority  inherent  in  all  the  works  of  the  Madinchae 
(Babylonians,  in  contradistinction  to  the  Maarbae  or  Pales- 
tinians). The  other,  continuing  its  oral  life,  so  to  say,  down 
to  a  much  later  period,  was  written  and  edited — less  carefully, 
or  rather  with  a  much  more  faithful  retention  of  the  oldest 


ON  THE  TABGUMS.  381 

and  youngest  fancies  of  Meturgemanim  and  Darshanim — on 
the  soil  of  Judaea  itself.  On  this  entire  cycle,  however,  the 
Pentateuch  and  a  few  other  books  and  fragmentary  pieces 
only  have  survived  entire,  while  of  most  of  the  other  books 
of  the  Bible  a  few  detached  fragments  are  all  that  is  known, 
and  this  chiefly  from  quotations.  The  injunction  above 
mentioned  respecting  the  sabbatical  reading  of  the  Targum 
on  the  Pentateuch — nothing  is  said  of  the  Prophets — explains 
the  fact,  to  a  certain  extent,  how  the  Pentateuch  Targum 
has  been  religiously  preserved,  while  the  others  have  perished'. 
This  circumstance,  also,  is  to  be  taken  into  consideration, 
that  Palestine  was  in  later  centuries  well-nigh  cut  off  from 
communication  with  the  Diaspora,  while  Babylon,  and  the 
gigantic  literature  it  produced,  reigned  paramount  over  all 
Judaism,  as,  indeed,  down  to  the  10th  century,  the  latter 
continued  to  have  a  spiritual  leader  in  the  person  of  the  Eesh 
Gelutha  (Head  of  the  Golah),  residing  in  Babylon.  As  not 
the  least  cause  of  the  loss  of  the  great  bulk  of  the  Palestinian 
Targum  may  also  be  considered  the  almost  uninterrupted 
martyrdom  to  which  those  were  subjected  who  preferred, 
under  all  circumstances,  to  live  and  die  in  the  Land  of 
Promise. 

However  this  may  be,  the  Targum  on  the  Pentateuch  has 
come  down  to  us :  and  not  in  one,  but  in  two  recensions. 
More  surprising  still,  the  one  hitherto  considered  a  fragment, 
because  of  its  embracing  portions  only  of  the  individual 
books,  has  in  reality  never  been  intended  to  embrace  any 
further  portion,  and  we  are  thus  in  the  possession  of  two 
Palestinian  Targums,  preserved  in  their  original  forms.  The 
one,  which  extends  from  the  first  verse  of  Genesis  to  the  last 
of  Deuteronomy,  is  known  under  the  name  of  Targum 
Jonathan  (ben  Uzziel)  or  Pseudo- Jonathan  on  the  Pentateuch. 
The  other,  interpreting  single  verses,  often  single  words  only, 
is  extant  in  the  following  proportions :  a  third  on  Genesis,  a 
fourth  on  Deuteronomy,  a  fifth  on  Numbers,  three-twentieths 
on  Exodus,  and  about  one-fourteenth  on  Leviticus.  The 
latter  is  generally  called  Targum  Jerushalmi,  or,  down  to  the 
llth  century  (Hai  Gaon,  Chananel),  Targum  Erets  Israel, 


382  ON  THE  TAEGUMS. 

Targum  of  Jerusalem  or  of  the  land  of  Israel.    That  Jonathan 
ben  Uzziel,  the  same  to  whom  the  prophetical  Targum  is 
ascribed,  and  who  is  reported  to  have  lived  either  in  the  5th- 
4th  century  B.C.,  or  about  the  time  of  Christ  himself  (see 
above),  could  have  little  to  do  with  a  Targum  which  speaks 
of  Constantinople  (Num.  xxiv.  19,  24),  describes  very  plainly 
the  breaking-up  of  the  West-Koman  Empire  (Num.  xxiv. 
19-24),  mentions  the  Turks  (Gen.  x.  2),  and  even  Moham- 
med's two  wives,  Chadidja  and  Fatime  (Gen.  xxi.  21),  and 
which  exhibits  not  only  the  fullest  acquaintance  with  the 
edited  body  of  the  Babylonian  Talmud,  by  quoting  entire 
passages  from  it,  but  adopts  its  peculiar  phraseology: — not 
to  mention  the  complete  disparity  between  the  style,  lan- 
guage, and  general  manner  of  the  Jonathanic  Targum  on  the 
Prophets,  and  those  of  this  one  on  the  Pentateuch,  strikingly 
palpable  at  first  sight, — was  recognised  by  early  investigators 
(Morinus,  Pfeiffer,  Walton,  &c.),  who  soon  overthrew  the  old 
belief  in  Jonathan  b.   Uzziel's   authorship,   as   upheld  by 
Menahem  Bekanati,  Asariah  de  Kossi,  Gedaljah,  Galatin, 
Fagius,  &c.     But  the  relation  in  which  the  two  Targums,  so 
similar  and  yet  so  dissimilar,  stood  to  each  other,  how  they 
arose,  and  where  and  when — all  these  questions  have  for  a 
long  time,  in  the  terse  words  of  Zunz,  caused  many  of  the 
learned    such  dire    misery,  that   whenever    the    "Targum 
Hierosolymitanum  comes  up,"  they,  instead  of  information 
on  it  and  its  twin-brother,  prefer  to  treat  the  reader  to  a 
round  volley  of  abuse  of  them.     Not  before  the  first  half  of 
this  century  did  the  fact  become   fully  and   incontestably 
established  (by  the  simple  process  of  an  investigation  of  the 
sources),  that  both  Targums  are  in  reality  one — that  both 
were  known  down  to  the  14th  century  under  no  other  name 
than  Targum  Jerushalmi — and  that  some  forgetful  scribe 
about  that  time   must  have  taken   the  abbreviation  >"/")- 
*  T.  J?  over  one  of  the  two  documents,  and,  instead  of  dis- 
solving it  into  Targum  Jerushalmi,  dissolved  it  erroneously 
into  what  he  must  till  then  have  been  engaged  in  copying — 
viz.   Targum- Jon  a  than,   sc.  ben   Uzziel  (on  the   Prophets). 
This  error,  fostered  by  the  natural  tendency  of  giving  a  well- 


ON  THE  TAEGUMS.  383 

known  and  far-famed  name — without  inquiring  too  closely 
into  its  accuracy — to  a  hitherto  anonymous  and  compara- 
tively little  known  version,  has  been  copied  again  and  again, 
until  it  found  its  way,  a  hundred  years  later,  into  print.  Of 
the  intermediate  stage,  when  only  a  few  MSS.  had  received 
the  new  designation,  a  curious  fact,  which  Azariah  de  Eossi 
{Cod.  37  b)  mentions,  gives  evidence.  "  I  saw,"  he  says, 
"  two  complete  Targums  on  the  whole  Pentateuch,  word  for 
word  alike ;  one  in  Eeggio,  which  was  described  in  the 
margin,  'Targum.  of  Jonathan  b.  Uzziel;'  the  other  in 
Mantua,  described  at  the  margin  as  '  Targum  Jerushalmi.' " 
In  a  similar  manner  quotations  from  either  in  the  Aruch 
confound  the  designation.  Benjamin  Mussaphia  (d.  1674), 
the  author  of  additions  and  corrections  to  the  Aruch,  has 
indeed  pronounced  it  as  his  personal  conjecture  that  both 
may  be  one  and  the  same,  and  Drusius  Mendelssohn,  Kappo- 
port,  and  others  shared  his  opinion.  Yet  the  difficulty  of 
their  obvious  dissimilarity,  if  they  were  identical,  remained 
to  be  accounted  for.  Zunz  tries  to  solve  it  by  assuming  that 
Pseudo- Jonathan  is  the  original  Targum,  and  that  the  frag- 
mentary Jerushalmi  is  a  collection  of  variants  to  it.  The 
circumstance  of  its  also  containing  portions  identical  with  the 
codex,  to  which  it  is  supposed  to  be  a  collection  of  readings, 
he  explains  by  the  negligence  of  the  transcriber.  Frankel, 
however,  followed  by  Traub  and  Levysohn,  has  gone  a  step 
further.  From  the  very  identity  of  a  proportionately  large 
number  of  places,  amounting  to  about  thirty  in  each  book, 
and  from  certain  palpable  and  consistent  differences  which 
run  through  both  recensions,  they  have  arrived  at  a  different 
conclusion,  which  seems  to  carry  conviction  on  the  face  of  it, 
viz.,  that  Jerushalmi  is  a  collection  of  emendations  and 
additions  to  single  portions,  phrases,  and  words  of  Onkelos, 
and  Pseudo- Jonathan  a  further  emendated  and  completed 
edition  to  the  whole  Pentateuch  of  Jerushalmi-Onkelos. 
The  chief  incentive  to  a  new  Targum  on  the  Pentateuch 
(that  of  Onkelos  being  well  known  in  Palestine),  was,  on  the 
one  hand,  the  wish  to  explain  such  of  the  passages  as  seemed 
either  obscure  in  themselves  or  capable  of  greater  adaptation 


384  ON  THE  TAKGUMS. 

to  the  times ;  and  on  the  other  hand  the  great  and  para- 
mount desire  for  legendary  lore,  and  ethical  and  homiletical 
motives,  intertwined  with  the  very  letter  of  Scripture,  did 
not  and  could  not  feel  satisfied  with  the  (generally)  strictly 
literal  version  of  Onkelos,  as  soon  as  the  time  of  eccentric 
prolix,  oral  Targums  had  finally  ceased  in  Palestine  too,  and 
written  Targums  of  Babylon  were  introduced  as  a  substitute, 
once  for  all.  Hence  variants,  exactly  as  found  in  Jerushalmi, 
not  to  the  whole  of  Onkelos,  but  to  such  portions  as  seemed 
most  to  require  "improvement"  in  the  direction  indicated. 
And  how  much  this  thoroughly  paraphrastic  version  was 
preferred  to  the  literal  is,  among  other  signs,  plainly  visible 
from  the  circumstance  that  it  is  still  joined,  for  instance,  to 
the  reading  of  the  Decalogue  on  the  Feast  of  Weeks  in  the 
synagogue.  At  a  later  period  the  gaps  were  filled  up,  and 
the  whole  of  the  existing  Jerushalmi  was  recast,  as  far  again 
as  seemed  fitting  and  requisite.  This  is  the  Jonathan,  so 
called  for  the  last  four  hundred  years  only.  And  thus  the 
identity  in  some,  and  the  divergence  in  other  places  finds  its 
most  natural  solution. 

The  Jerushalmi,  in  both  its  recensions,  is  written  in  the 
Palestinensian  dialect,  the  peculiarities  of  which  we  have 
briefly  characterised  above.  It  is  older  than  the  Masora  and 
the  conquest  of  Western  Asia  by  the  Arabs.  Syria  or  Pales- 
tine must  be  its  birthplace,  the  second  half  of  the  7th  century 
its  date,  since  the  instances  above  given  will  not  allow  of  any 
earlier  time.  Its  chief  aim  and  purpose  is,  especially  in  its 
second  edition,  to  form  an  entertaining  compendium  of  all 
the  Halachah  and  Haggadah,  wrhich  refers  to  the  Pentateuch, 
and  takes  its  stand  upon  it.  And  in  this  lies  its  chief  use  to 
us.  There  is  hardly  a  single  allegory,  parable,  mystic  digres- 
sion, or  tale  in  it  which  is  not  found  in  the  other  Haggadistic 
writings — Mishnah,  Talmud,  Mechilta,  Sifra,  Sifri,  &c. ;  and 
both  Winer  and  Petermann,  not  to  mention  the  older  autho- 
rities, have  wrongly  charged  it  with  inventing  its  interpre- 
tations. Even  where  no  source  can  be  indicated,  the  author 
has  surely  only  given  utterance  to  the  leading  notions  and 
ideas  of  his  times,  extravagant  and  abstruse  as  they  may 


ON  THE  TAEGUMS.  385 

oftentimes  appear  to  our  modern  Western  minds.  Little 
value  is  inherent  in  its  critical  emendations  on  the  exegesis 
of  Onkelos.  It  sometimes  endeavours  either  to  find  an 
entirely  new  signification  for  a  word,  and  then  it  often  falls 
into  grave  errors,  or  it  restores  interpretations,  rejected  by 
Onkelos ;  but  it  must  never  be  forgotten  that  translation  is 
quite  a  secondary  object  with  Jerushalmi.  It  adheres,  how- 
ever, to  the  general  method  followed  by  Onkelos  and 
Jonathan.  It  dissolves  similes  and  widens  too  concise 
diction.  Geographical  names  it  alters  into  those  current  in 
its  own  day.  It  avoids  anthropomorphisms  as  well  as  an- 
thropopathisms.  The  strict  distinction  between  the  Divine 
Being  and  man  is  kept  up,  and  the  word  Dip  "  before "  is 
put  as  a  kind  of  medium  between  the  former  and  the  latter, 
no  less  than  the  other— "  Shechinah,"  "Word,"  "Glory,"  &c.. 
It  never  uses  Elohim  where  the  Scripture  applies  it  to  man 
or  idols.  The  same  care  is  taken  to  extol  the  good  deeds  of 
the  people  and  its  ancestors,  and  to  slur  over  and  excuse  the 
evil  ones,  &c. : — all  this,  however,  in  a  much  more  decided 
and  exaggerated  form  than  either  in  Onkelos  or  Jonathan. 
Its  language  and  grammar  are  very  corrupt ;  it  abounds — 
chiefly  in  its  larger  edition,  the  Pseudo-Jonathan — in  Greek, 
Latin,  Persian,  and  Arabic  words ;  and  even  making  allow- 
ances for  the  many  blunders  of  ignorant  scribes,  enough  will 
remain  to  pronounce  the  diction  ungrammatical  in  very 
many  places. 

Thus  much  briefly  of  the  Jerushalmi  as  one  and  the  same 
work.  We  shall  now  endeavour  to  point  out  a  few  cha- 
racteristics belonging  to  its  two  recensions  respectively.  The 
first,  Jerushalmi  /car'  e^o^v,  knows  very  little  of  angels ; 
Michael  is  the  only  one  ever  occurring :  in  Jonathan,  on  the 
other  hand,  angelology  flourishes  in  great  vigour:  to  the 
Biblical  Michael,  Gabriel,  Uriel,  are  added  the  Angel  of 
Death,  Samael,  Sagnugael,  Shachassai,  Usiel ;  seventy  angels 
descend  with  God  to  see  the  building  of  the  Babylonian 
tower ;  nine  hundred  millions  of  punishing  angels  go  through 
Egypt  during  the  night  of  the  Exodus,  &c.  Jerushalmi 
makes  use  but  rarely  of  Halachah  and  Haggadah,  while 

2  c 


386  ON  THE  TARGUMS. 

Jonathan  sees  the  text  as  it  were  only  through  the  medium 
of  Haggadah :  to  him  the  chief  end.  Hence  Jonathan  has 
many  Midrashim  not  found  in  Jerushalmi,  while  he  does  not 
omit  a  single  one  contained  in  the  latter.  There  are  no 
direct  historical  dates  in  Jerushalmi,  but  many  are  found  in 
Jonathan,  and  since  all  other  signs  indicate  that  but  a  short 
space  of  time  intervenes  between  the  two,  the  late  origin  of 
either  is  to  a  great  extent  made  manifest  by  these  dates. 
The  most  striking  difference  between  them,  however,  and 
the  one  which  is  most  characteristic  of  either,  is  this,  that 
while  Jerushalmi  adheres  more  closely  to  the  language  of 
the  Mishnah,  Jonathan  has  greater  affinity  to  that  of  the 
Talmud.  Of  either  we  subjoin  short  specimens,  which,  for 
the  purpose  of  easier  comparison  and  reference,  we  have 
placed  side  by  side  with  Onkelos.  The  Targum  Jerushalmi 
was  first  printed  in  Bomberg's  Bible,  Venice,  1518,  if.,  and 
was  reprinted  in  Bomberg's  edd.,  and  in  Walton,  vol.  iv. 
Jonathan  to  the  Pentateuch,  a  MS.  of  which  was  first  dis- 
covered by  Ashur  Purinz  in  the  Library  of  the  family  of  the 
Puahs  in  Yenice,  was  printed  for  the  first  time  in  1590,  as 
"  Targum  Jonathan  ben  Uzziel,"  at  Venice,  reprinted  at 
Hanau,  1618,  Amsterdam,  1640,  Prague,  1646,  Walton, 
vol.  iv.,  &c. 


ON  THE  TARGUMS. 


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ON  THE  TARGUMS.  393 

Y.  TARGUMS  OF  "  JOSEPH  THE  BLIND  "  ON  THE 
HAGIOGRAPHA. 

"When  Jonathan  ben  Uzziel  began  to  paraphrase  the 
Cethubim  "  (Hagiographa),  we  read  in  the  Talmudical 
passage  before  quoted,  "a  mysterious  voice  was  heard  say- 
ing :  It  is  enough.  Thou  hast  revealed  the  secrets  of  the 
Prophets — why  wouldst  thou  also  reveal  those  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  ?"  It  would  thus  appear,  that  a  Targum  to  these 
books  (Job  excepted)  was  entirely  unknown  up  to  a  very 
late  period.  Those  Targnms  on  the  Hagiographa  which 
we  now  possess  have  been  attributed  vaguely  to  different 
authors,  it  being  assumed  in  the  first  instance  that  they  were 
the  work  of  one  man.  Now  it  was  Akylas  the  Greek  trans- 
lator, mentioned  in  Bereshith  Kabba  (see  above)  ;  now 
Onkelos,  the  Chaldee  translator  of  the  Pentateuch,  his 
mythical  double ;  now  Jonathan  b.  Uzziel,  or  Joseph  (Jose) 
the  Blind  (see  above).  But  the  diversity  in  the  different 
parts  of  the  work  warring  too  palpably  against  the  unity  of 
authorship,  the  blindness  of  the  last-named  authority  seemed 
to  show  the  easiest  way  out  of  the  difficulty.  Joseph  was 
supposed  to  have  dictated  it  to  different  disciples  at  different 
periods,  and  somehow  every  one  of  the  amanuenses  infused 
part  of  his  own  individuality  into  his  share  of  the  work. 
Popular  belief  thus  fastened  upon  this  Joseph  the  Blind, 
since  a  name  the  work  must  needs  have,  and  to  him  in  most 
of  the  editions,  the  Targum  is  affiliated.  Yet,  if  ever  he 
did  translate  the  Hagiographa,  certain  it  is  that  those  which 
we  possess  are  not  by  his  or  his  disciples'  hands — that  is,  of 
the  time  of  the  fourth  century.  Writers  of  the  thirteenth 
century  already  refuted  this  notion  of  Joseph's  authorship, 
for  the  assumption  of  which  there  never  was  any  other 
ground  than  that  he  was  mentioned  in  the  Talmud,  like 
Onkelos- Akylas  and  Jonathan,  in  connection  with  Targum ; 
and,  as  we  saw,  there  is  indeed  reason  to  believe  that  he  had 
a  share  in  the  redaction  of  "Jonathan"  to  the  Prophets, 
which  falls  in  his  time.  Between  him  and  our  hagio- 
graphical  Targums,  however,  many  centuries  must  have 


394  ON  THE  TARGUMS. 

elapsed.  Yet  we  do  not  even  venture  to  assign  to  them 
more  than  an  approximate  round  date,  about  1000  A.D. 
Besides  the  Targums  to  the  Pentateuch  and  the  Prophets, 
those  now  extant  range  over  Psalms,  Proverbs,  Job,  the  five 
Megilloth,  i.  e.  Song  of  Songs,  Ruth,  Lamentations,  Esther, 
Ecclesiastes ;  the  Chronicles  and  Daniel.  Ezra  and  Nehe- 
miah  alone  are  left  without  a  Targum  at  present ;  yet  we 
can  hardly  help  believing  that  ere  long  one  will  also  be 
found  to  the  latter,  as  the  despaired-of  Chronicles  was  found 
in  the  seventeenth  century,  and  Daniel — a  sure  trace  of  it  at 
least,  so  recently,  that  as  yet  nobody  has  considered  it  worth 
his  while  to  take  any  notice  of  it.  We  shall  divide  these 
Targums  into  four  groups :  Proverbs,  Job,  Psalms ; — Megil- 
loth ; — Chronicles ; — and  Daniel. 


1.  TARGUM  ON  PSALMS,  JOB,  PROVERBS. 

Certain  linguistic  and  other  characteristics  l  exhibited  by 
these  three  Targums,  lead  to  the  conclusion  that  they  are 
nearly  contemporaneous  productions,  and  that  their  birth- 
place is,  most  likely,  Syria.  While  the  two  former,  how- 
ever, are  mere  paraphrases,  the  Targum  on  Proverbs  comes 
nearer  to  our  idea  of  a  version  than  almost  any  Targum, 
except  perhaps  that  of  Onkelos.  It  adheres  as  closely  to 
the  original  text  as  possible.  The  most  remarkable  feature 
about  it,  however,  and  one  which  has  given  rise  to  endless 
speculations  and  discussions,  is  its  extraordinary  similarity 
to  the  Syriac  Version.  It  would  indeed  sometimes  seem  as 
if  they  had  copied  each  other — an  opinion  warmly  advocated 
by  Dathe,  who  endeavoured  to  prove  that  the  Chaldee  had 
copied  or  adapted  the  Syrian,  there  being  passages  in  the 
Targum  which  could,  he  assumed,  only  be  accounted  for  by 


for  angel  in  Targ.  Ps.  and  Job,  the 
J,  affixed  to  the  3rd  p.   plur.  prtef. 


Peal,  the  infin.  with  proof.  D,  besides 
several  more  or  less  unusual  Greek  and 
Svriac  words  common  to  all  three. 


ON  THE  TAEGUMS. 


395 


a  misunderstanding  of  the  Syriac  translation.1  It  has,  on 
the  other  hand,  been  argued  that  there  are  a  greater  number 
of  important  passages  which  distinctly  show  that  the  Tar- 
gumist  had  used  an  original  Hebrew  text,  varying  from  that 
of  the  Syriac,  and  had  also  made  use  of  the  LXX.  against 
the  latter.2  The  Syriasms  would  easily  be  accounted  for  by 
the  Aramaic  idiom  itself,  the  forms  of  which  vary  but  little 
from,  and  easily  merge  into,  the  sister  dialect  of  Syria. 
Indeed  nearly  all  of  them  are  found  in  the  Talmud,  a 
strictly  Aramaic  work.  It  has  been  supposed  by  others  that 
neither  of  these  versions,  as  they  are  now  in  our  hands,  exhibit 
their  original  form.  A  late  editor,  as  it  were,  of  the  (muti- 
lated) Targum,  might  have  derived  his  emendations  from 
that  version  which  came  nearest  to  it,  both  in  language  and 
in  close  adherence  to  the  Hebrew  text — viz.,  the  Syriac ; 
and  there  is  certainly  every  reason  to  conclude  from  the 
woefully  faulty  state  in  which  this  Targum  is  found  (Luz- 
zatto  counts  several  hundred  corrupt  readings  in  it),  that 
many  and  clumsy  hands  must  have  been  at  work  upon  the 
later  Codices.  The  most  likely  solution  of  the  difficulty, 
however,  seems  to  be.  that  indicated  by  Frankel — viz.,  that 
the  LXX.  is  the  common  source  of  both  versions,  but  in 
such  a  manner  that  the  Aramaic  has  also  made  use  of  the 
Hebrew  and  the  Greek — of  the  latter,  however,  through  the 
Syriac  medium.  As  a  specimen  of  the  curious  similarity 
of  both  versions,  the  following  two  verses  from  the  beginning 
of  the  book  may  find  a  place  here : — 


1  e.  g.,  ch.  xxix.  5,  the  Heb.  word  nj"]i?, 
"  a  city,"  is  rendered  J--3;..D,  «  city," 

in  Syr.  Targum  translates  &O13,  "  a 
lie,"  which  is  only  to  be  accounted 
for  by  a  misunderstanding  or  mis- 
reading of  the  Syriac  JLD;_2,  where 
for  the  second  c  the  Chaldee  translator 
read  a  I,  j^*-3. 

2  Prov.  xx vi.  10,  the  Masoretie  text 
reads:    ^D2    "GCtt   /D    ^IHD    IT; 


LXX.  TroAAo  ^etyuo^erot  ffap£ 

(=  b»D3  -rea);  Targ.  KTBa  wn  »:D 

N^Dl;  thus  adopting  exactly  the 
reading  of  the  LXX.  against  the 
received  text:  xxix.  21,  IJttD  pOSD 
nny,  quoted  in  the  same  manner  in 
Talm.  Succah.  52  I ;  LXX.  t>s  Kara- 
arTrara\5.  etc  iraiSbs  oi'/fcVrjj  carat ;  evi- 
dently 'reading  ppiT  "QV  =  Targ. 
>(in3  fcnajA.  Comp.  also  xxvii.  1C, 
xxx.  30,  &c. 


396  ON  THE  TARGUMS. 

CHAP.  I.  2-3. 
TARGUM    (Ver.    2). 


Ver.  3. 


SYR.  (Ver.  2). 


Ver.  3. 


Compare  also  vers.  5,  6,  8,  10,  12,  13  ;  ch.  ii.  vers.  9,  10, 
13-15  ;  iii.  2-9,  &c. 

We  must  not  omit  to  observe  that  no  early  Jewish  com- 
mentator —  Rashi,  Ibn  Ezra,  &c.  —  mentions  the  Targum 
either  to  Proverbs,  or  to  Job  and  Psalms.  Nathan  ben 
Jechiel  (twelfth  century)  is  the  first  who  quotes  it. 

Respecting  the  two  latter  Targums  of  this  group,  Psalms 
and  Job,  it  is  to  be  observed  that  they  are,  more  or  less, 
mere  collections  of  fragments.  That  there  must  have  existed 
paraphrases  to  Job  at  a  very  early  period  follows  from  the 
Talmudical  passages  which  we  quoted  in  the  introduction  — 
nay,  we  almost  feel  inclined  to  assume  that  this  book,  con- 
sidered by  the  learned  as  a  mere  allegory  ("  Job  never  was, 
and  never  was  created,"  is  the  dictum  found  in  the  Talmud, 
Baba  Bathra,  15  a  :  i.  e.  he  never  had  any  real  existence,  but 
is  a  poetical,  though  sacred,  invention),  opened  the  list  of 
written  paraphrases.  How  much  of  the  primitive  version  is 
embodied  in  the  one  which  we  possess  it  is  of  course  next  to 
impossible  to  determine,  more  especially  in  the  state  of 
infancy  in  which  the  investigation  of  the  Targums  as  yet 
remains.  So  much,  however,  is  palpable,  that  the  Targums 


ON  THE  TAEGUMS.  397 

of  both  Psalms  and  Job  in  their  present  shape  contain  relics 
of  different  authors  in  different  times:  some  paraphrasts, 
some  strictly  translators.  Very  frequently  a  second  version 
of  the  same  passage  is  introduced  by  the  formula  inN  D1T1TI, 
"  another  Targum,"  and  varies  most  widely  from  its  prede- 
cessor; while,  more  especially  in  the  Psalms,  a  long  series 
of  chapters  translated  literally,  is  followed  by  another  series 
translated  in  the  wildest  and  most  fanciful  character.  The 
Cod.  Erpen.  still  exhibits  these  various  readings,  as  such, 
side  by  side,  on  its  margin ;  thence,  however,  they  have  in 
our  printed  editions  found  their  way  into  the  text.  How 
much  of  these  variants,  or  of  the  entire  text,  belongs  to  the 
Palestinian  Cycles,  which  may  well  have  embraced  the 
whole  Torah: — or  whether  they  are  to  be  considered  ex- 
clusively the  growth  of  later  times,  and  have  thus  but  a  very 
slender  connection  with  either  the  original  Babylonian  or 
the  Palestinian  Targum-works,  future  investigation  must 
determine. 

The  most  useful  in  this  group  is  naturally  the  Targum  on 
Proverbs,  it  being  the  one  which  translates  most  closely,  or 
rather  the  only  one  which  does  translate  at  all.  Besides  the 
explanation  it  gives  of  difficult  passages  in  the  text,  its 
peculiar  affinity  to  the  Syriac  Version  naturally  throws  some 
light  upon  both,  and  allows  of  emendations  in  and  through 
either.  As  to  Job  and  Psalms,  their  chief  use  lies  in  their 
showing  the  gradual  dying  stages  of  the  idiom  in  which 
they  are  written,  and  also  in  their  being  in  a  manner  guides 
to  the  determination  of  the  date  of  certain  stages  of  Hag- 
gadah. 


2,  3.  TAEGUMS  ON  THE  FIVE  MEGILLOTH. 

These  Targums  are  likewise  not  mentioned  before  the 
twelfth  century,  when  the  Aruch  quotes  them  severally:— 
although  Esther  must  have  been  translated  at  a  very  early 
period,  since  the  Talmud  already  mentions  a  Targum  on  it. 
Of  this,  we  need  hardly  add,  no  trace  is  found  in  our  present 
Tarum.  The  freedom  of  a  "  version  "  can  go  no  further 


.398  ON  THE  TAEGUMS. 

than  it  does  in  these  Targums  on  the  Megilloth.  They  are, 
in  fact,  mere  Haggadah,  and  bear  the  most  striking  resem- 
blance to  the  Midrash  on  the  respective  books.  Curiously 
enough,  the  gradual  preponderance  of  the  Paraphrase  over 
the  text  is  noticeable  in  the  following  order :  Ruth,  Lamen- 
tations, Ecclesiastes,  Esther,  Song  of  Songs.  The  latter  is 
fullest  to  overflowing  of  those  "  nugse,  atque  frivolitates" 
which  have  so  sorely  tried  the  temper  of  the  wise  and  grave. 
Starting  from  the  almost  comical  notion  that  all  they  found 
in  the  books  of  Mohammedanism  and  of  Judaism,  of  Rome 
and  of  Greece,  if  it  seemed  to  have  any  reference  to  "  Re- 
ligio,"  however  unsupported,  and  however  plainly  bearing 
the  stamp  of  poetry — good  or  bad — on  its  face,  must  needs 
be  a  religious  creed,  and  the  creed  forced  upon  every  single 
believer : — they  could  not  but  get  angry  with  mere  "  day- 
dreams "  being  interspersed  with  the  sacred  literature  of  the 
Bible.  Delitzsch,  a  scholar  of  our  generation,  says  of  the 
Targums  in  general  that  tc  history  becomes  in  them  most 
charming,  most  instructive  poetry;  but  this  poetry  is  not 
the  invention,  the  phantasma  of  the  writer,  but  the  old  and 
popular  venerable  tradition  or  legend  ....  the  Targums 
are  poetical,  both  as  to  their  contents  and  form  "  (Gesch.  d. 
Jild.  Poesie,  p.  27) :  and  further,  "  The  wealth  of  legend  in 
its  gushing  fullness  did  not  suffer  any  formal  bounds ;  legend 
bursts  upon  legend,  like  wave  upon  wave,  not  to  be  dammed 
in  even  by  any  poetical  forms.  Thus  the  Jerusalem  Tar- 
gum  in  its  double  Recensions  [to  the  Pentateuch],  and  the 
Targums  on  the  five  Megilloth  are  the  most  beautiful 
national  works  of  art,  through  which  there  runs  the  golden 
thread  of  Scripture,  and  which  are  held  together  only  by 
the  unity  of  the  idea  "  (p.  135).  Although  we  do  not  share 
Delitzsch's  enthusiasm  to  the  full  extent,  yet  we  cannot  but 
agree  with  him  that  there  are,  together  with  stones  and 
dust,  many  pearls  of  precious  price  to  be  gathered  from 
these  much  despised,  because  hardly  known,  books. 

The  dialect  of  these  books  occupies  the  mean  between  the 
East  and  West  Aramaean,  and  there  is  a  certain  unity  of 
style  and  design  about  all  the  five  books,  which  fully  justifies 


ON  THE  TAEGUMS.  399 

the  supposition  that  they  are,  one  and  all,  the  work  of  one 
author.  It  may  be  that,  taken  in  an  inverted  series,  they 
mark  the  successive  stages  of  a  poet's  life ;  glowing,  rap- 
turous, overflowing  in  the  first ;  stately,  sober,  prosy  in  the 
last.  As  to  the  time  of  its  writing  or  editing,  we  have  again 
to  repeat,  that  it  is  most  uncertain,  but  unquestionably 
belongs  to  a  period  much  later  than  the  Talmud.  The 
Book  of  Esther,  enjoying  both  through  its  story-like  form 
*md  the  early  injunction  of  its  being  read  or  heard  by  every 
one  on  the  feast  of  Purim,  a  great  circulation  and  popularity, 
has  been  targumised  many  times,  and  besides  the  one  em- 
bodied in  the  five  Megilloth,  there  are  two  more  extant  (not 
three,  as  generally  stated :  the  so-called  third  being  only  an 
abbreviation  of  the  first),  which  are  called  respectively  the 
first :  a  short  one  without  digressions,  and  the  second — 
{Tar gum  sheni)  :  a  larger  one,  belonging  to  the  Palestinian 
"Cycle.  The  latter  Targuni  is  a  collection  of  Eastern  ro- 
mances, broken  up  and  arranged  to  the  single  verses:  of 
gorgeous  hues  and  extravagant  imagination,  such  as  are  to 
be  met  with  in  the  Adshaib  or  Clmniis,  or  any  Eastern  col- 
lection of  legends  and  tales. 


VI.  TARGUM  ON  THE  BOOK  OF  CHRONICLES. 

This  Targum  was  unknown,  as  we  said  before,  up  to  a 
Tery  recent  period.  In  1680,  it  was  edited  for  the  first  time 
from  an  Erfurt  MS.  by  M.  F.  Beck,  and  in  1715  from  a 
more  complete  as  well  as  correct  MS.  at  Cambridge,  by 
D.  Wilkins.  The  name  of  Hungary  occurring  in  it,  and  its 
frequent  use  of  the  Jerusalem-Targum  to  the  Pentateuch, 
amounting  sometimes  to  simple  copying  (comp.  the  Genealo- 
gical Table  in  chap,  i.,  &c.),  show  sufficiently  that  its  author 
is  neither  "  Jonathan  b.  Uzziel "  nor  "  Joseph  the  Blind,"  as 
has  been  suggested.  But  the  language,  style,  and  the 
Haggadah  with  which  it  abounds,  point  to  a  late  period 
and  to  Palestine  as  the  place  where  it  was  written.  Its 
use  must  be  limited  to  philological,  historical,  and  geo- 


400  ON  THE  TAKGUMS. 

graphical  studies;  the  science  of  exegesis  will  profit  little 
by  it.  The  first  edition  appeared  under  the  title  Para- 
plirasis  Chaldaica  libr.  Clironicoruin,  cura  M.  F.  Beckii, 
2  torn.  Aug.  Vind.  1680-83,  4to ;  the  second  by  D.  Wilkins, 
Paraphrasis  ....  auctore  R.  JosepJio,  &c.  Amst.  1715,  4to. 
The  first  edition  has  the  advantage  of  a  large  number  of 
very  learned  notes,  the  second  that  of  a  comparatively  more 
correct  and  complete  text. 

VII.  THE  TARGTJM  TO  DANIEL. 

It  is  for  the  first  time  that  this  Targum,  for  the  non- 
existence  of  which  many  and  weighty  reasons  were  given 
(that  the  date  of  the  Messiah's  arrival  was  hidden  in  it, 
among  others),  is  here  formally  introduced  into  the  regular 
rank  and  file  of  Targums,  although  it  has  been  known  for 
now  more  than  five-and-twenty  years.  Munk  found  it,  not 
indeed  in  the  Original  Aramaic,  but  in  what  appears  to  him 
to  be  an  extract  of  it  written  in  Persian.  The  MS.  (Anc. 
Fond,  No.  45,  Imp.  Library)  is  inscribed  "  History  of 
Daniel,"  and  has  retained  only  the  first  words  of  the 
Original,  which  it  translates  likewise  into  Persian.  This 
language  is  then  retained  throughout. 

After  several  legends  known  from  other  Targums,  follows 
a  long  prophecy  of  Daniel,  from  which  the  book  is  shown  to 
have  been  written  after  the  first  Crusade.  Mohammed  and 
his  successors  are  mentioned,  also  a  king  who  coming  from 
Europe  (fNWl  Ttf)  will  go  to  Damascus,  and  kill  the  Ish- 
inaelitic  (Mohammedan)  kings  and  princes;  he  will  break 
down  the  minarets  (m^D),  destroy  the  mosques  (NJTttDQ), 
and  no  one  will  after  that  dare  to  pronounce  the  name  of 
the  Profane  (SDS)  =  Mohammed).  The  Jews  will  also  have 
to  suffer  great  misfortunes  (as  indeed  the  knightly  Crusaders 
won  their  spurs  by  dastardly  murdering  the  helpless  masses, 
men,  women,  and  children,  iu  the  Ghettos  along  the  Rhine 
and  elsewhere,  before  they  started  to  deliver  the  Holy  tomb). 
By  a  sudden  transition  the  Prophet  then  passes  on  to  the 
"  Messiah,  the  Son  of  Joseph,"  Gog  and  Magog,  and  to  the 


ON  THE  TARGUMS.  401 

"  true  Messiah,  the  Son  of  David."  Munk  rightly  concludes 
that  the  book  must  have  been  composed  in  the  twelfth 
century,  when  Christian  kings  reigned  for  a  brief  period 
over  Jerusalem  (Notice  sur  Saadia,  Par.  1838). 

VIII.  There  is  also  a  Chaldee  translation  extant  of  the 
apocryphal  pieces  of  Esther,  which,  entirely  lying  apart 
from  our  task,  we  confine  ourselves  to  mention  without 
further  entering  into  the  subject.  De  Rossi  has  published 
them  with  Notes  and  Dissertations.  Tubingen,  1783,  Svo. 


FURTHER  FRAGMENTS  OF  THE  PALESTINIAN  TARGUM. 

Besides  the  complete  books  belonging  to  the  Palestinian 
Cycle  of  Targum  which  we  have  mentioned,  and  the  portions 
of  it  intersected  as  "  Another  Reading,"  "  Another  Targum," 
into  the  Babylonian  Versions,  there  are  extant  several  inde- 
pendent fragments  of  it.  Nor  need  we  as  yet  despair  of 
finding  still  further  portions,  perhaps  one  day  to  see  it 
restored  entirely.  There  is  all  the  more  hope  for  this,  as 
the  Targum  has  not  been  lost  very  long  yet.  Abudraham 
quotes  the  Targum  Jerushalmi  to  Samuel  (i.  9,  13).  Kimchi 
has  preserved  several  passages  from  it  to  Judges  (xi.  1,  con- 
sisting of  47  words) ;  to  Samuel  (i.  17,  18:  106  words);  and 
Kings  (i.  22,  21 :  68  words ;  ii.  4,  1 :  174  words ;  iv.  6 :  55 
words ;  iv.  7 :  72  words ;  xiii.  21 :  9  words),  under  the 
simple  name  of  Toseftah,  i.e.  Addition,  or  Additional  Tar- 
gum. Luzzatto  has  also  lately  found  fragments  of  the 
same,  under  the  names  "Targum  of  Palestine,"  "Targum 
of  Jerushalmi,"  "  Another  Reading,"  &c.,  in  an  African 
Codex  written  5247  A.M.  =  1487  A.D.,  viz.  to  1  Sam.  xviii. 
19 ;  2  Sam.  xii.  12  ;  1  Kings  v.  9,  v.  11,  v.  13,  x.  18,  x.  26, 
xiv.  13 ;  to  Hosea  i.  1 ;  Obad.  i.  1.— To  Isaiah,  Rashi 
(Isaaki,  not  as  people  still  persist  in  calling  him,  Jarclii), 
Abudraham  and  Farissol  quote  it :  and  a  fragment  of  the 
Targum  to  this  prophet  is  extant  in  Cod.  Urbin.  Vatican 
No.  1,  containing  about  120  words,  and  beginning:  "Pro- 
phecy of  Isaiah,  which  he  prophesied  at  the  end  of  his 

2  D 


402  ON  THE  TARGUMS. 

prophecy  in  the  days  of  Manasseh  the  Son  of  Hezeldah  the 
King  of  the  Tribe  of  the  House  of  Judah  on  the  17th  of 
Tatnuz  in  the  hour  when  Manasseh  set  up  an  idol  in  the 
Temple,"  &c.  Isaiah  predicts  in  this  his  own  violent  death. 
Parts  of  this  Targum  are  also  found  in  Hebrew,  in  Pesiktah 
Eabbathi  6  a,  and  Yalkut  Isa.  58  d.  A  Jerusalem  Targum 
to  Jeremiah  is  mentioned  by  Kimchi;  to  Ezekiel  by  E. 
Simeon,  Nathan  (Aruch),  and  likewise  by  Kimchi,  who  also 
speaks  of  a  further  additional  Targum  to  Jonathan  for  this 
Book.  A  "  Targum- Jerushalmi "  to  Micah  is  known  to 
Kashi,  and  of  Zechariah  a  fragment  has  been  published  in 
Brans  (Kepert.  pt.  15,  p.  174)  from  a  Keuchlinian  MS.  (Cod. 
354,  Kennic.  25),  written  1106.  The  passage,  found  as  a 
marginal  gloss  to  Zech.  xii.  10,  reads  as  follows : — 

"  Targum  Jerushalmi.  And  I  shall  pour  out  upon  the- 
House  of  David  and  the  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem  the  spirit 
of  prophecy  and  of  prayer  for  truth.  And  after  this  shall 
go  forth  Messiah  the  Son  of  Efraim  to  wage  war  against 
Gog.  And  Gog  will  kill  him  before  the  city  of  Jerushalaim. 
They  will  look  up  to  me  and  they  will  ask  me  wherefore  the 
heathens  have  killed  Messiah  the  Son  of  Efraim.  They  will 
then  mourn  over  him  as  mourn  father  and  mother  over  an 
only  son,  and  they  will  wail  over  him  as  one  wails  over  a 
firstborn."  —  A  Targum  Jerushalmi  to  the  third  chapter 
of  Halakkuk,  quoted  by  Kashi,  is  mentioned  by  de  Kossi 
(Cod.  265  and  405,  both  thirteenth  century).  It  has  been 
suggested  that  a  Targum  Jerushalmi  on  the  Prophets  only 
existed  to  the  Haftarahs,  which  had  at  one  time  been  trans- 
lated perhaps,  like  the  portion  from  the  Law,  in  public ; 
but  we  have  seen  that  entire  books,  not  to  mention  single 
chapters,  possessed  a  Palestinian  Targum,  which  never  were 
intended  or  used  for  the  purpose  of  Haftarah.  And  there  is 
no  reason  to  doubt  that  the  origin  of  this  Targum  to  the 
Prophets  is  precisely  similar  to,  and  perhaps  contempo- 
raneous with,  that  which  we  traced  to  that  portion  which 
embraces  the  Pentateuch.  The  Babylonian  Version,  the 
"  Jonathan  "  Targum,  though  paraphrastic,  did  not  satisfy 
the  apparently  more  imaginative  Palestinian  public.  Thus 


ON  THE  TAEGUMS.  403 

from  heaped-up  additions  and  marginal  glosses,  the  step  to 
a  total  re-writing  of  the  entire  Codex  in  the  manner  and 
taste  of  the  later  times  and  the  different  locality,  was  easy 
enough.  From  a  critique  of  the  work  as  such,  however,  we 
must  naturally  keep  aloof,  as  long  as  we  have  only  the  few 
specimens  named  to  judge  from.  But  its  general  spirit  and 
tendency  are  clear  enough.  So  is  also  the  advantage  to 
which  even  the  minimum  that  has  survived  may  some  day 
be  put  by  the  student  of  Midrashic  literature,  as  we  have 
briefly  indicated  above. 

We  cannot  conclude  without  expressing  the  hope — pro- 
bably a  vain  one — that  linguistic  studies  may  soon  turn  in 
the  direction  of  that  vast  and  most  interesting,  as  well  as 
important,  Aramaic  literature,  of  which  the  Targums  form 
but  a  small  item. 

The  writer  finally  begs  to  observe  that  the  translations  of 
all  the  passages  quoted  from  Talmud  and  Midrash,  as  well 
as  the  specimens  from  the  Targum,  have  been  made  by  him 
directly  from  the  respective  originals. 


2  D  2 


(  404  ) 


XVI. 
ON  THE  SAMARITAN  PENTATEUCH.1 


THE  Samaritan  Pentateuch,  a  Kecension  of  the  commonly 
received  Hebrew  Text  of  the  Mosaic  Law,  in  use  with  the 
Samaritans,  was  written  in  the  ancient  Hebrew  (Ibri),  or  so- 
called  Samaritan  character.2  This  recension  is  found  vaguely 
quoted  by  some  of  the  early  Fathers  of  the  Church,  under 
the  name  of  "  HaXaioTarov  'QfBpalicov  TO  Trapa 
in  contradistinction  to  the  "'l&ftpaiKov  TO  Trapa 
further,  as  "Samaritanorum  Volumina,"  &c.  Thus  Origen 
on  Num.  xiii.  1,  ....  "a  real  avTa  IK  TOVTCOV  ^a/zapemof 
'Efipai/cov  /jLeTe/3d\o/j,ev ;"  and  on  Num.  xxi.  13,  .  .  .  "a  eV 
/toyot?  TWV  ^afJbapeiTwv  evpo^ev"  &c.  Jerome,  Prol.  to 
Kings:  "Samaritani  etiam  Pentateuchum  Moysis  totidem" 
(?  22,  like  the  "  Hebrews,  Syrians  and  Chaldaaans")  "litteris 
habent,  figuris  tantum  et  apicibus  discrepantes."  Also  on 
Gal.  iii.  10,  "quam  ob  causam" — (viz.  'ETrt/cara^aTo?  Tra? 
09  OVK  ^jji/jbivei  ev  Tracrt  rot?  yeypajjifjievois,  being  quoted  there 
from  Deut.  xxvii.  26,  where  the  Masoretic  text  has  only  THN 
n^m  minn  nm  nt*  &p  $b  ntPN— "  cursed  be  he  that  con- 
firmeth  not3  the  words  of  this  Law  to  do  them;"  while  the 
LXX.  reads  Tra?  avdpanros  .  .  .  Traai  Tot?  \6yoi$) — "quam 
ob  causam  Samaritanorum  Hebrsea  volumina  relegens  inveni 
^  scriptum  esse;"  and  he  forthwith  charges  the  Jews  with 
having  deliberately  taken  out  the  ^3  ,  because  they  did  not 


1  From    Dr.  Wm.    Smith's    « Die-  |  Tosifta  Synh.  4 ;  Synbcdr.  22  a,  Meg. 
tionary  of  the  Bible,'  Vol.  II.  !  Jer.  1,  9,  Sola  Jer.  7,  2,  sq. 

2  rwaia^i  vy-i,  nnny  nns,  as  dis- 1    '  Th*  A-  v->  foi^wing.the  LXX., 

tinguished  from  KITtf,  nni^N  nD3.    and  perhaps  Luther,  has  inserted  the 
Comp.  Synh.  21  I,  Jer.  Meg.  5,  2 ;    word  all 


ON  THE  SAMAKITAN  PENTATEUCH.  405 

wish  to  be  bound  individually  to  all  the  ordinances:  for- 
getting at  the  same  time  that  this  same  ^3  occurs  in  the 
very  next  chapter  of  the  Masoretic  text  (Deut.  xxviii.  15)  :— 
"  All  his  commandments  and  his  statutes."  Eusebius  of 
Csesarea  observes  that  the  LXX.  and  the  Sam.  Pent,  agree 
against  the  Keceived  Text  in  the  number  of  years  from  the 
Deluge  to  Abraham.  Cyril  of  Alexandria  speaks  of  certain 
words  (Gen.  iv.  8),  wanting  in  the  Hebrew,  but  found  in  the 
Samaritan.  The  same  remark  is  made  by  Procopius  of  Gaza 
with  respect  to  Deut.  i.  6 ;  Num.  x.  10,  x.  9,  &c.  Other  pas- 
sages are  noticed  by  Diodorus,  the  Greek  Scholiast,  &c.  The 
Talmud,  on  the  other  hand,  mentions  the  Sam.  Pent,  dis- 
tinctly and  contemptuously  as  a  clumsily  forged  record: 
"  You  have  falsified1  your  Pentateuch"  said  B.  Eliezer  b. 
Shimon  to  the  Samaritan  scribes,  with  reference  to  a  passage 
in  Deut.  xi.  30,  where  the  well-understood  word  Shechem 
was  gratuitously  inserted  after  "  the  plains  of  Moreh," — "  and 
you  have  not  profited  aught  by  it "  (comp.  Jer.  Sotah  21  &, 
cf.  17  ;  Bdbli  33  &).  On  another  occasion  they  are  ridiculed 
on  account  of  their  ignorance  of  one  of  the  simplest  rules  of 
Hebrew  grammar,  displayed  in  their  Pentateuch;  viz.  the 
use  of  the  il  locale  (unknown,  however,  according  to  Jer. 
Meg.  6,  2,  also  to  the  people  of  Jerusalem).  "  Who  has  caused 
you  to  blunder  ?  "  said  R.  Shimon  b.  Eliezer  to  them ;  referring 
to  their  abolition  of  the  Mosaic  ordinance  of  marrying  the 
deceased  brother's  wife  (Deut.  xxv.  5  ff.), — through  a  mis- 
interpretation of  the  passage  in  question,  which  enjoins  that 
the  wife  of  the  dead  man  shall  not  be  "  without  "  to  a  stranger, 
but  that  the  brother  should  marry  her :  they,  however,  taking 
nnnn  (  =  Y^1?)  to  be  an  epithet  of  jittfN,  "  wife,"  translated 
'•'  the  outer  ivife"  i.  e.  the  betrothed  only  (Jer.  Jelam.  3,  2, 
Ber.  E.,  &c.). 

Down  to  within  the  last  two  hundred  and  fifty  years,  how- 
ever, no  copy  of  tjiis  divergent  Code  of  Laws  had  reached 
Europe,  and  it  began  to  be  pronounced  a  fiction,  and  the 
plain  words  of  the  Church-Fathers — the  better  known  autho- 


1  ona^r. 


406  ON  THE  SAMARITAN  PENTATEUCH. 

rities — who  quoted  it,  were  subjected  to  subtle  interpretations. 
Suddenly,  in  1616,  Pietro  della  Valle,  one  of  the  first  dis- 
coverers also  of  the  Cuneiform  inscriptions,  acquired  a  com- 
plete Codex  from  the  Samaritans  in  Damascus.  In  1623  it 
was  presented  by  Achille  Harley  de  Sancy  to  the  Library  of 
the  Oratory  in  Paris,  and  in  1628  there  appeared  a  brief 
description  of  it  by  J.  Morinus  in  his  preface  to  the  Homan 
text  of  the  LXX.  Three  years  later,  shortly  before  it  was 
published  in  the  Paris  Polyglott, — whence  it  was  copied, 
with  few  emendations  from  other  codices,  by  Walton— 
Morinus,  the  first  editor,  wrote  his  Exercitationes  Ecclesiastics 
in  utrumque  Samaritanorum  Pentateuchum,  in  which  he  pro- 
nounced the  newly  found  Codex,  with  all  its  innumerable 
Variants  from  the  Masoretic  text,  to  be  infinitely  superior  to 
the  latter  :  in  fact,  the  unconditional  and  speedy  emendation 
of  the  Eeceived  Text  thereby  was  urged  most  authoritatively. 
And  now  the  impulse  was  given  to  one  of  the  fiercest  and 
most  barren  literary  and  theological  controversies :  of  which 
more  anon.  Between  1620  and  1630  six  additional  copies, 
partly  complete,  partly  incomplete,  were  acquired  by  Ussher : 
five  of  which  he  deposited  in  English  libraries,  while  one 
was  sent  to  De  Dieu,  and  has  disappeared  mysteriously. 
Another  Codex,  now  in  the  Ambrosian  Library  at  Milan, 
was  brought  to  Italy  in  1621.  Peiresc  procured  two  more, 
one  of  which  was  placed  in  the  Koyal  Library  of  Paris,  and 
one  in  the  Barberini  at  Kome.  Thus  the  number  of  MSS'. 
in  Europe  gradually  grew  to  sixteen.  During  the  present 
century  another,  but  very  fragmentary  copy,  was  acquired 
by  the  Gotha  Library.  A  copy  of  the  entire  (?)  Pentateuch, 
with  Targum  (?  Sam.  Version),  in  parallel  columns,  4to,  on 
parchment,  was  brought  from  Nablus  by  Mr.  Grove  in  1861, 
for  the  Count  of  Paris,  in  whose  library  it  is.  Single  portions 
of  the  Sam.  Pent.,  in  a  more  or  less  defective  state,  are  now 
of  no  rare  occurrence  in  Europe. 

Kespecting  the  external  condition  of  these  MSS.,  it  may 
be  observed  that  their  sizes  vary  from  12mo  to  folio,  and 
that  no  scroll,  such  as  the  Jews  and  the  Samaritans  use  in 
their  synagogues,  is  to  be  found  among  them.  The  letters, 


ON  THE  SAMARITAN  PENTATEUCH. 


407 


which  are  of  a  size  corresponding  to  that  of  the  book,  exhibit 
none  of  those  varieties  of  shape  so  frequent  in  the  Masor. 
Text;  such  as  majuscules,  minuscules,  suspended,  inverted 
letters,  &c.  Their  material  is  vellum  or  cotton-paper  ;  the 
ink  used  is  black  in  all  cases  save  the  scroll  used  by  the 
Samaritans  at  Ndblus,  the  letters  of  which  are  in  gold. 
There  are  neither  vowels,  accents,  nor  diacritical  points. 
The  individual  words  are  separated  from  each  other  by  a 
dot.  Greater  or  smaller  divisions  of  the  text  are  marked 
by  two  dots  placed  one  above  the  other,  and  by  an  asterisk. 
A  small  line  above  a  consonant  indicates  a  peculiar  meaning 
of  the  word,  an  unusual  form,  a  passive,  and  the  like  :  it  is, 
in  fact,  a  contrivance  to  bespeak  attention.1  The  whole 
Pentateuch  is  divided  into  nine  hundred  and  sixty-four  para- 
graphs, or  Kazzin,  the  termination  of  which  is  indicated  by 
these  figures,  =  .*.  or  <.  At  the  end  of  each  book  the 
number  of  its  divisions  is  stated  thus  :  — 

p  J  jlfcWin  "IBD  PITH  [Masoret.  Cod.,  12  Sidras  (Parshioth),  50  Chapters]. 


<250) 

(200) 

(130)  w&fxn  . 

(218)  j-p1 


The  Sam.  Pentateuch  is  halved  in  Lev.  vii.  15  (viii.  8,  in 
Hebrew  Text),  where  the  words  "Middle  of  the  Thorah"2 
are  found.  At  the  end  of  each  MS.  the  year  of  the  copying, 
the  name  of  the  scribe,  and  also  that  of  the  proprietor,  are 
usually  stated.  Yet  their  dates  are  not  always  trustworthy 
when  given,  and  very  difficult  to  be  conjectured  when  entirely 
omitted,  since  the  Samaritan  letters  afford  no  internal  evi- 
dence of  the  period  in  which  they  were  written.  To  none  of 
the  MSS.,  however,  which  have  as  yet  reached  Europe,  can 
be  assigned  a  higher  date  than  the  10th  Christian  century. 
The  scroll  used  in  Nablus  bears  —  so  the  Samaritans  pretend  — 
the  following  inscription  :  —  "  I,  Abisha,  son  of  Pinehas,  son 
of  Eleazar,  son  of  Aaron  the  Priest,  —  upon  them  be  the 


1  njn  and  nan.  iv  and  ny,  -an 

and  lin,  ta  and  !?K,  fetf*  and  b?K\ 

d  KP!'  ^  and  '^' tlie  suffixes 


at  the  end  of  a  word,  the  H  without 
a  dagesh,  &c.,  are  thus  pointed  out  to 
the  reader. 


408  ON  THE  SAMARITAN  PENTATEUCH. 

Grace  of  Jehovah  !  To  His  honour  have  I  written  this  Holy 
Law  at  the  entrance  of  the  Tabernacle  of  Testimony  on  the 
Mount  Gerizim,  Beth  El,  in  the  thirteenth  year  of  the  taking- 
possession  of  the  Land  of  Canaan,  and  all  its  boundaries 
around  it,  by  the  Children  of  Israel.  I  praise  Jehovah."' 
(Letter  of  Meshalmah  b.  Ab  Sechuah,  Cod.  19,791,  Add. 
MSS.  Brit.  Mus.  Comp.  Epist.  Sam.  Sichemitarum  ad  Jobum 
Ludolphum,  Ciza?,  1688 ;  Antiq.  Eccl.  Orient,  p.  123 ;  Hunt- 
ingtoni  Epist.  pp.  49,  56  ;  Eichhorn's  Eepertorium  f.  Tribl.  und 
morg.  Lit,  torn,  ix.,  &c.)  But  no  European1  has  ever  suc- 
ceeded in  finding  it  in  this  scroll,  however  great  the  pains 
bestowed  upon  the  search  (comp.  Eichhorn,  Einleit.  ii.  132) ; 
and  even  if  it  had  been  found,  it  would  not  have  deserved  the 
slightest  credence. 

We  have  briefly  stated  above  that  the  Exercitationes  of 
Morinus,  which  placed  the  Samaritan  Pentateuch  far  above 
the  Keceived  Text  in  point  of  genuineness, — partly  on 
account  of  its  agreeing  in  many  places  with  the  Septuagint, 
and  partly  on  account  of  its  superior  "  lucidity  and  harmony," 
— excited  and  kept  up  for  nearly  two  hundred  years  one  of 
the  most  extraordinary  controversies  on  record.  Charac- 
teristically enough,  however,  this  was  set  at  rest  once  for  all 
by  the  very  first  systematic  investigation  of  the  point  at 
issue,  It  would  now  appear  as  if  the  unquestioning  rapture 
with  which  every  new  literary  discovery  was  formerly  hailed, 
the  innate  animosity  against  the  Masoretic  (Jewish)  Text, 
the  general  preference  for  the  LXX.,  the  defective  state  of 
Semitic  studies, — as  if,  we  say,  all  these  put  together  were 
not  sufficient  to  account  for  the  phenomenon  that  men  of  any 
critical  acumen  could  for  one  moment  not  only  place  the 


1  It  would  appear,  however  (sec 
Archdeacon  Tattam's  notice  in  the 
Parthenon,  No.  4,  May  24,  1862)  that 
Mr.  Levysolm,  a  person  lately  attached 


selves  told  Huntington,  "that  this  in- 
scription had  been  in  their  scroll  once, 
but  must  have  been  erased  by  some 
wicked  hand,"  this  startling  piece  of 


to  the  llus^ian  staff  in  Jerusalem,  has  !  information  must  be  received  with 
found  the  inscription  in  question  j  extreme  caution :— no  less  so  than  the 
"going  through  the  middle  of  the  body  j  other  more  or  less  vague  statements 
of  the  Text  of  the  Decalogue,  and  with  respect  to  the  labours  and  pre- 
exteuding  through  three  columns."  tended  discoveries  of  Mr.  Levysolm. 
Considering  that  the  Samaritans  them-  !  See  note,  p.  420. 


ON  THE  SAMARITAN  PENTATEUCH.  40D 

Sam.  Pent,  on  a  par  with  the  Masoretic  Text,  but  even  raise 
it,  unconditionally,  far  above  it.  There  was  indeed  another 
cause  at  work,  especially  in  the  first  period  of  the  dispute : 
it  was  a  controversial  spirit  which  prompted  Morinus  and 
his  followers,  Cappellus  and  others,  to  prove  to  the  Reformers 
what  kind  of  value  was  to  be  attached  to  their  authority : 
the  received  form  of  the  Bible,  upon  which  and  which  alone 
they  professed  to  take  their  stand ; — it  was  now  evident  that 
nothing  short  of  the  Divine  Spirit,  under  the  influence  and 
inspiration  of  which  the  Scriptures  were  interpreted  and 
expounded  by  the  Roman  Church,  could  be  relied  upon.  On 
the  other  hand,  most  of  the  "  Antimorinians " — Ue  Muys, 
Hottinger,  St.  Morinus,  Buxtorf,  Fuller,  Leusden,  Pfeiffer, 
&c. — instead  of  patiently  and  critically  examining  the  sub- 
ject and  refuting  their  adversaries  by  arguments  which  were 
within  their  reach,  as  they  are  within  ours,  directed  their 
attacks  against  the  persons  of  the  Morinians,  and  thus  their 
misguided  zeal  left  the  question  of  the  superiority  of  the  New 
Document  over  the  Old  where  they  found  it.  Of  higher 
value  were,  it  is  true,  the  labours  of  Simon,  Le  Clerc,  Walton, 
&c.,  at  a  later  period,  who  proceeded  eclectically,  rejecting 
many  readings,  and  adopting  others  which  seemed  preferable 
to  those  of  the  Old  Text.  Houbigant,  however,  with  unex- 
ampled ignorance  and  obstinacy,  returned  to  Morinus's  first 
notion — already  generally  abandoned — of  the  unquestionable 
and  thorough  superiority.  He,  again,  was  followed  more  or 
less  closely  by  Kennicott,  Al.  a  St.  Aquilino,  Lobstein, 
Gecldes,  and  others.  The  discussion  was  taken  up  once  more 
on  the  other  side,  chiefly  by  Ravius,  who  succeeded  in  finally 
disposing  of  this  point  of  the  superiority  (Exercitt.  Phil,  in 
Houbig.  'Prol.  Lugd.  Bat.  1755).  It  was  from  his  day  for- 
ward allowed,  almost  on  all  hands,  that  the  Masoretic  Text 
was  the  genuine  one,  but  that  in  doubtful  cases,  when  the 
Samaritan  had  an  "unquestionably  clearer"  reading,  this 
was  to  be  adopted,  since  a  certain  amount  of  value,  however 
limited,  did  attach  to  it.  Michaelis,  Eichhorn,  Bertholdt, 
Jahn,  and  the  majority  of  modern  critics,  adhered  to  this 
opinion.  Here  the  matter  rested  until  1815,  when  Gesenius 


410  ON  THE  SAMARITAN  PENTATEUCH. 

(De  Pent.  Sam.  Origine,  Indole  et  Audoritate)  abolished  tlie 
remnant  of  the  authority  of  the  Sam.  Pent.     So  masterly, 
lucid,  and  clear  are  his  arguments  and  his  proofs,  that  there 
has  been  and  will  be  no  further  question  as  to  the  absence  of 
all  value  in  this  Recension,  and  in  its  pretended  emendations. 
In  fact,  a   glance   at  the   systematic   arrangement   of  the 
variants,  of  which  he  first  of  all  bethought  himself,  is  quite 
sufficient  to  convince  the  reader  at  once  that  they  are  for  the 
most  part  mere  blunders,  arising  from  an  imperfect  know- 
ledge of  the  first  elements  of  grammar  and  exegesis ;  and  that 
others  owe  their  existence  to  a  studied  design  of  conforming 
certain  passages  to  the  Samaritan  mode  of  thought,  speech, 
<md  faith — more  especially  to  show  that  the  Mount  Gerizim, 
upon  which  their  temple   stood,  was  the  spot  chosen  and 
indicated  by  God  to  Moses  as  the  one  upon  which  He  desired 
to  be  worshipped.1     Finally,  that  others  are  due  to  a  tendency 
towards  removing,  as  well  as  linguistic  shortcomings  would 
allow,  all  that  seemed  obscure  or  in  any  way  doubtful,  and 
towards  filling  up  all  apparent   imperfections: — either  by 
repetitions  or  by  means  of  newly-invented  and  badly-fitting 
words  and  phrases.     It  must,  however,  be  premised  that, 
except   two   alterations  (Ex.  xiii.  7,  where  the  Sam.  reads 
"  Six  days  shalt  thou  eat  unleavened  bread,"  instead  of  the 
received  "Seven  days,"  and  the  change  of  the  word  nTU"l> 
"There  shall  not  le"  into  ntm,  "live"  Dent,  xxiii.  18),  the 
Mosaic  laws  and  ordinances  themselves  are  nowhere  tampered 
with. 

We  will  now  proceed  to  lay  specimens  of  these  once  so 
highly  prized  variants  before  the  reader,  in  order  that  he 
may  judge  for  himself.  We  shall  follow  in  this  the  commonly 
received  arrangement  of  Gesenius,  who  divides  all  these 
readings  into  eight  classes ;  to  which,  as  we  shall  afterwards 
show,  Frankel  has  suggested  the  addition  of  two  or  three 
others,  while  Kirchheim  (in  his  Hebrew  work  ynDW 
enumerates  thirteen,2  which  we  will  name  hereafter. 


1  For  "ini*,  "  He  witt  elect "  (the  spot),  the  Sam.  always  puts  1113,  "  He 
lias  elected  "  (viz.  Gerizim).     See  below. 
*  D'TJJfi?  "a*1  must  be  a  misprint. 


ON  THE  SAMARITAN  PENTATEUCH. 


411 


1.  The  first  class,  then,  consists  of  readings  by  which 
emendations  of  a  grammatical  nature  have  been  attempted. 

(a.)  The  quiescent  letters,  or  so-called  matres  ledionis,  are 
supplied.1 

(b.)  The  more  poetical  forms  of  the  pronouns,  probably  less 
known  to  the  Sam.,  are  altered  into  the  more  common  ones. 2 

(c.)  The  same  propensity  for  completing  apparently  incom- 
plete forms  is  noticeable  in  the  flexion  of  the  verbs.  The 
apocopated  or  short  future  is  altered  into  the  regular  future.3 

(d.)  On  the  other  hand  the  paragogical  letters  i  and  > 
at  the  end  of  nouns,  are  almost  universally  struck  out  by  the 
Sam.  corrector ; 4  and,  in  the  ignorance  of  the  existence  of 
nouns  of  a  common  gender,  he  has  given  them  genders 
according  to  his  fancy.5 

(e.)  The  infin.  absol.  is,  in  the  quaintest  manner  possible, 
reduced  to  the  form  of  the  finite  verb.6 

For  obsolete  or  rare  forms,  the  ^modern  and  more  common 
ones  have  been  substituted  in  a  great  number  of  places.7 


1  Tims  D*  is  found  in  the  Samar.  for 
S-  of  the  Masoretic  T. ;  HI  for  IT-  ; 
V  for  }-;    DiV^N  for  Dn^N^nillND 

for  rnfcO,  &c. ;  sometimes  a  1  is  put 
even  where  the  Heb.  T.  has,  in  accord- 
ance with  the  grammatical  rules,  only 
a  short  vowel  or  a  sheva :— V3BM1  is 
found  for  V3pn ;  nV31N  for  HV3K. 

2  13PI3,    DH,  ^H,     become    UrtiN, 

non,  r6tfn. 

3  131?!    becomes    Tam ;    JWi    is 
emendated  into  m»»1 ;  NT  (verb  frt) 
into  ilKf;    the  final }  —of  the  3rd 
pers.  fern.  plur.  fut.  into  H3. 

4  'im^  is  shortened  into  p1B>,  UVH 
into  rPPl. 

5  Masculine  are  made    the  words 
Orfc  (Gen.  xlix.  20),  TJJB>  (Dent.  xv.  7, 
&c.),  iljilD  (Gen.  xxxii.  9);  feminine 
the  words    Vltf   (Gen.   xiii.   6),   "jYl 
(Deut.  xxviii.  25),  K'B3  (Gen.  xlvi.  25, 
&c.) ;  wherever  the  word  "U?3  occurs 
in  the  sense  of  "  girl,"  a  H  is  added  at 
the  end  (Gen.  xxiv.  14,  &c.). 

6  nm  Tl^n   m^l,   "the  waters 
returned  continually"  is  transformed 


into  !T:"I  IDH  m^%  "they  re- 
turned, they  went  and  they  returned  " 
(Gen.  viii.  3).  Where  the  infm.  is 
used  as  an  adverb,  e.  g.  pmn  (Gen. 
xxi.  16),  "  lar  off,"  it  is  altered  into 
npTnn,  "she  went  far  away,"  which 
renders  the  passage  almost  unintel- 
ligible. 

7  DnjJ  for  DTV  (Gen.  iii.  10,  11)  ; 
17»  for  *bl  (xi.  30);  DniBV  for  the 
collective  ~I1B¥  (xv.  10)  ;  rttOK,  "  fe- 
male servants,"  for  n^HDN  (xx.  18); 
raiB:'D  nni3O  NTI  for  the  adverbial 

:no  (xiix.  is)  ;  ^nni  for  D^nm  (Ex. 

xxvi.  26,  making  it  depend  from  ^VS?)  ; 
D£^p,  in  the  unusual  sense  of  "from 
itT"  (comp.  1  K.  xvii.  13),  is  altered 
into  H3SP  (Lev.  ii.  2)  ;  H^H  is  wrongly 


put  for  m  (3rd  p.  s.  m.  of  "PI  =  ; 

iy,  the  obsolete  form,  is  replaced  by 
the  more  recent  T'V  (Num.  xxi.  15)  ; 
the  unusual  fern,  termination  *-  (comp. 
to*3K  S^IN)  is  elongated  into  n»-  ; 
inty  is  the  emendation  for  V6P  (Deut. 
xxii.  1)  ;  nn  for  n"!H  (Deut.  xxxiii. 
15,  &c.) 


412  ON  THE  SAMARITAN  PENTATEUCH. 

2.  The  second  class  of  variants  consists  of  glosses  and  inter- 
pretations  received    into   the    text:   glosses,    moreover,   in 
which  the  Sam.  not  unfrequently  coincides  with  the  LXX., 
and  which  are  in  many  cases  evidently  derived  by  both  from 
some  ancient  Targum.1 

3.  The  third  class  exhibits  conjectural  emendations — some- 
times far  from  happy — of  real  or  imaginary  difficulties  in  the 
Masoretic  text.2 


man,"    is 


for 


"  man  and  woman," 
used  by  Gen.  vii.  2,  of  animals,  is 
changed  into  mp31  "OT,  "  male  and 
female;"  V&OE>(Gen.  xxiv.  GO),  "his 
haters,"  becomes  V1T1N,  "his  ene- 
mies;" for  nD  (indefin.)  is  substituted 
niD'iKUD;  KT,  "he  will  see,  choose," 
is  amplified  by  a  i1?,  "for  himself;" 
"13  n  "13  n  is  transformed  into  "13  H 

")tt>  ")B>N  (Lev.  xvii.  10)  ;  Tl^K  "Ij^l 

Djfa  |?K  (Num.  xxiii.  4\  "  And  God 
met  Bile  am,"  becomes  with  the  Sam. 

'1  n«  ''*?$  Ifc&O  KWI,  "And  an 
Antjd  of  the  Lord  found  Bileam  ;  " 

hy  (Gen.  xx.  3),  "  for  the  wo- 

amplified   into    THIN    />y 
for  the  sake  of  the  woman  :" 

01  "J33  (obsol.,  comp. 
is  put  H33^>,  "those  that  are 
before  me,"  in  contradistinction  to 
"those  who  will  come  after  me; 
"l}^)},  "  and  she  emptied"  (her  pitcher 
into  the  trough,  Gen.  xxiv.  20),  has 
made  room  for  TTini,  "  and  she  took 
down  ;  "  r\DW  Tnyi3,  "  I  will  meet 
there"  (A.  V.,  Ex.  xxix.  43),  is  made 
Dfc?  TlCm},  "  I  shall  be  [searched] 
found  there;"  Num.  xxxi.  15,  before 

words  mp3  ^3  Dfl"nn,  "  Have  you 
spared  tlie  life  of  every  female  ?  "  a 

H^,  "Why,"  is  inserted  (LXX.); 
for  inptf  niiT  DE>  »3  (Dent,  xxxii.  3), 
"  If  I  call  the  name  of  Jehovah,"  the 
Sam.  has  DKO,  "  In  the  name,"  &c. 

2  The  elliptic  use  of  lh\  frequent 
both  in  Hebrew  and  Arabic,  being 
evidently  unknown  to  the  emend  a  tor, 

he  alters  the  1^}»  PI3B>  DKD  p!?n 
(Gen.  xvii.  17),  "shall  a  child  be  born 
unto  him  that  is  a  hundred  vcars  old?  " 


info  TIK,  "shall  I  beget?"  Gen. 
xxiv.  62,  NniD  N3,  "  he  came  from 
going"  (A.  V.  "from  the  way")  1o 
the  well  of  Lahai-roi,  the  Sam.  alters 
into  -inn03rN3,  "in  or  through  the 
desert "  (LXX.,  Sta  TTJS  epTj^ou).  In 

Gen.  xxx.  34,  7"ni3  \T  1^  }n,  "Be- 
hold, may  it  be  according  to  thy 
word, '  the  17  (Arab.  J)  is  trans- 
formed into  &6,  "and  if  not— let  it 
be  like  thy  word."  Gen.  xli.  ;'i"2. 

tnVnn  ni^n  ^yi,  "And  for  that 

the    dream    was    doubled,"    becomes 

'n  n^^  rhw,  "The  dream  rose  a 
second  time,"  which  is  both  un- 
Hebrew,  and  diametrical  I  y  opposed  to 
the  sense  and  construction  of  the 
passage.  Better  is  the  emendation 

Gen.  xlix.  10,  vbn  |'3p  "from  be- 
tween his  feet,"  into  "  from  among  his 

banners,"  V^"I  |»3D.  Ex.  xv.  18, 
all  but  five  of  the  Sam.  Codd.  read 

11 V1  D^iy^,  "  for  ever  and  longer,"  in- 
stead of  1JJ1,  the  common  form,  "ever- 
more." Ex.  xxxiv.  7,  HjM*  N'b  HJ531, 
"that  will  by  no  means  clear  the 
sin,"  becomes  n£3*  i?  np31,  and  the 
innocent  to  him  shall  be  innocent," 
against  both  the  parallel  passages  and 
the  obvious  sense.  The  somewhat 

difficult  -IBD'  tibl,  "  and  they  did  not 
cease"  (A.  V.,Num.  xi.  25),  renppeais 
as  a  still  more  obscure  conjectural 
•ISDN*,  which  we  would  venture  to 

translate,  "they  were  not  gathered 
in,"  in  the  sense  of  "  killed  : "  instead 
of  either  the  1B03N,  "  congregated, ' 
of  the  Sam.  Vers.,  or  Castell's  "  conti- 
nuerunt,"  or  Houbigant's  and  Dathe's 


ON  THE  SAMARITAN  PENTATEUCH. 


413 


4.  The  fourth  class  exhibits  readings  in  which  apparent 
deficiencies  have  been  corrected  or  supplied  from  parallel 
passages  in  the  common  text.  Gen.  xviii.  29,  30,  for  "  I 
shall  not  do  it,"  x  "  I  shall  not  destroy  " 2  is  substituted  from 
Gen.  xviii.  28,  31,  32.  Gen.  xxxvii.  4,  yh»,  "  his  brethren," 
is  replaced  by  V32,  "  bis  sons,"  from  the  former  verse.  One 
of  the  most  curious  specimens  of  the  endeavours  of  the 
Samaritan  Codex  to  render  the  readings  as  smooth  and 
consistent  as  possible,  is  its  uniform  spelling  of  proper  nouns 
like  11/1%  Jethro,  occasionally  spelt  *w  in  the  Hebrew 
text,  Moses'  father-in-law — a  man  who,  according  to  the 
Midrash  (Si/ri),  had  no  less  than  seven  names ; 
(Jehoshua),  into  which  form  it  corrects  the  shorter 
(Hoshea)  when  it  occurs  in  the  Masoretic  Codex.  More 
frequent  still  are  the  additions  of  single  words  and  short 
phrases  inserted  from  parallel  passages,  where  the  Hebrew 
text  appeared  too  concise : 3 — unnecessary,  often  excessively 
absurd  interpolations. 


*'  convenerant."  Num.  xxi.  28,  the 
"IJJ,  "  Ar  "  (Moab),  is  emendated  into 
*iy,  "  as  far  as,"  a  perfectly  meaning- 
less reading;  only  that  the  "IJJ,  "city," 
as  we  saw  above,  was  a  word  unknown 
to  the  Sam.  The  somewhat  un- 
common words  (Num.  xi.  32),  intit/^1 

miDt?  Dr6,  "and  they  (the  people) 
spread  them  all  abroad,"  are  trans- 
posed into  nDint?  srh  itsn^i, <!  and 

they  slaughtered  for  themselves  a 
slaughter."  Deut.  xxviii.  37,  the 

word  nKDJiv,  "  an  astonishment " 
(A.  V.),  very  rarely  used  in  this  sense 
(Jer.  xix.  8,  xxv.  9),  becomes  Q£v 
"  to  a  name,"  L  e.,  a  bad  name.  Deut. 
xxxiii.  6,  1BDD  Vf)»  *m,  '-May  his 
men  be  a  multitude,"  the  Sam.,  with 
its  characteristic  aversion  to,  or  rather 
ignorance  of,  the  use  of  poetical 
diction,  reads  1SDD  1JWO  TM,  "May 
there  be  from  Mm  a  multitude," 
thereby  trying  perhaps  to  encounter 
also  the  apparent  difficulty  of  the 
word  1BDO,  standing  for  "  a  great 
number."  Anything  more  absurd 
than  the  1J1ND  in  this  place  could 


i  hardly  be  imagined.     A  few  verses 
j  further  on,  the  uncommon  use  of  |D  in 
!  the  phrase  j-lE-lp'  JO  (Deut.  xxxiii.  11), 
i  as  "lest,"  "not,"  caused  the  no  less 
I  unfortunate  alteration  •ISp'jp1'  ""JO,   so 
that  the  latter  part  of  the  passage, 
:  "  smite  through  the  loins  of  them  that 
i  rise  against  him,  and  of  them   that 
!  hate  him,  that  they  rise  not  again"  be- 
comes "  who  will  raise  them  ?  " — barren 
alike  of  meaning  and  of  poetry.     For 
the  unusual  and  poetical  ^frO"!  (^Deut. 
xxxiii.   25;    A.  V.   "  thy  'strength"), 
"^3~  is  suggested;  a  word  about  the 
significance  of  which  the  commentators 
are  at  a  greater  loss  even  than  about 
that  of  the  original. 

3  Thus  in   Gen.  i.   14,  the  words 

pKH  by  "Pitn?,  "  to  give  light  upon 
the  earth,"  are  inserted  from  ver.  17 ; 


Gen.  xi.  8,  the  word      pB-1,  "  and 
tower,"  is  added  from  ver.  4 ;   Gen. 

xxiv.  22,  riQK  ty,  "on  her  face" 
(nose),  is  added  from  ver.  47,  so  that 
the  former  verse  reads  "  And  the  man 
took  (np^l  for  D£»1)  a  golden  ring 
'  upon  her  face.' " 


414  ON  THE  SAMARITAN  PENTATEUCH. 

5.  The  fifth  class  is  an  extension  of  the  one  immediately 
preceding,   and    comprises    larger  phrases,   additions,   and 
repetitions  from  parallel  passages.     Whenever  anything  is 
mentioned  as  having  been  done  or  said  previously  by  Moses, 
or  where  a  command  of  God  is  related,  as  being  executed, 
the   whole   speech    bearing    upon   it   is  repeated   again   at 
full  length.     These  tedious  and  always  superfluous  repeti- 
tions are  most  frequent  in  Exodus,  both  in  the  record  of  the 
plagues  and  in  the  many  interpolations  from  Deuteronomy. 

6.  To  the   sixth  class    belong   those   "emendations"   of 
passages  and  words  of  the  Hebrew  text  which  contain  some- 
thing objectionable  in  the  eyes  of  the  Samaritans,  on  account 
either  of  historical  improbability  or  apparent  want  of  dignity 
in  the  terms  applied  to  the  Creator.     Thus  in  the  Sam. 
Pent,  no  one,  in  the  antediluvian  times,  begets  his  first  son 
after  he  has  lived  150  years :  but  one  hundred  years  are, 
where  necessary,  subtracted    before,  and   added   after  the 
birth  of  the  first  son.     Thus  Jared,  according  to  the  Hebrew 
Text,  begot  at  162  years,  lived  afterwards  800  years,  and  "  all 
his  years  were  962  years ;"  according  to  the  Sam.  he  begot 
when  only  62  years  old,  lived  afterwards  785  years,  "  and  all 
his  years  were  847."    After  the  Deluge  the  opposite  method 
is  followed.     A  hundred  or  fifty  years  are  added  before  and 
subtracted  after  the  begetting:  E.g.  Arphaxad,  who  in  the 
Common   Text  is   35   years   old   when   he  begets  Shelah, 
and  lived  afterwards  403  years :  in  all  438 — is  by  the  Sam. 
made  135  years  old  when  he  begets  Shelah,  and  lives  only 
303  years  afterwards  =  438.     (The  LXX.  has,  according  to 
its  own  peculiar  psychological  and   chronological   notions, 
altered  the  Text  in  the  opposite  manner.)     An  exceedingly 
important  and  often   discussed  emendation  of  this  class  is 
the  passage  in  Ex.  xii.  40,  which  in  our  text  reads,  "  Now 
the  sojourning  of    the    children   of   Israel    who    dwelt  in 
Egypt  was  four  hundred  and   thirty   years."      The   Sama- 
ritan  (supported  by  LXX.  Cod.   Al.)   has    "The   sojourn- 
ing of  the  children  of  Israel,  [and  their  fathers  who  dicelt  in 
the  land  of  Canaan  and  in  the  land  of  Egypt — eV  7$  A.l<yi>7rrM 
teal  eV  777  Kavadv]  was  four  hundred  and  thirty  years :"  an 


ON  THE  SAMARITAN  PENTATEUCH. 


415 


interpolation  of  very  late  date  indeed.  Again,  in  Gen.  ii.  2r 
"And  God  [?  had]  finished  (^i,  ?  pluperf.)  on  the  seventh 
day,"  ^UltfJi  is  altered  into  >W rr>  " the  sixth"  lest  God's- 
rest  on  the  Sabbath-day  might  seem  incomplete  (LXX.).  In 
Gen.  xxix.  3,  8,  "  We  cannot,  until  all  the  flocks  be  gathered 
together,  and  till  they  roll  the  stone  from  the  mouth  of  the- 
well,"  DHiy,  "flocks,"  is  replaced  by  DTP,  "shepherds," 
since  the  flocks  could  not  roll  the  stone  from  the  well :  the 
corrector  not  being  apparently  aware  that  in  common  par- 
lance in  Hebrew,  as  in  other  languages,  "  they  "  occasionally 
refer  to  certain  not  particularly  specified  persons.  Well  may 
Gesenius  ask  what  this  corrector  would  have  made  of 
Is.  xxxvii.  [not  xxxvi.]  36 :  "  And  when  they  arose  in  the 
morning,  behold  they  were  all  dead  corpses."  The  surpass- 
ing reverence  of  the  Samaritan  is  shown  in  passages  like  Ex. 
xxiv.  10,  "and  they  beheld  God,"1  which  is  transmuted  into 
"  and  they  held  by,  clung  to  God  "2 — a  reading  certainly  less 
in  harmony  with  the  following — "  and  they  ate  and  drank." 

7.  The  seventh  class  comprises  what  we  might  briefly  call 
Samaritanisms,  i.e.,  certain  Hebrew  forms,  translated  into- 
the  idiomatic  Samaritan ;  and  here  the  Sam.  Codices  vary 
considerably  among  themselves, — as  far  as  the  very  imperfect 
collation  of  them  has  hitherto  shown — some  having  retained 
the  Hebrew  in  many  places  where  the  others  have  adopted 
the  new  equivalents.3 


«  irrvi. 

3  The  gutturals  and  Ahevi-leiters 
are  frequently  changed;  —  DVin  be- 
comes BVIK  (Gen.  viii.  4);  »&O  is 
altered  into  ^JD  (xxiii.  18)  ;  n3G?  into 

yne>  (xxvii.  19);  ^Ttt  stands  for  ^PIT 
(Deut.  xxxii.  24);  the  n  is  changed 
into  PI  in  words  like  3J13.  DTD!!,  which 
become  3PI3,  DTQ3  ;  H  is  altered  into 
y—  ~1DH  becomes  1DJJ.  The  *•  is  fre- 
quently doubled  (?  as  a  mater  lec- 
tiouis)  ;  l^Tl  is  substituted  for 


for  KTX  ;  «a  for  >B. 
Many  words  are  joined  together  :  — 
TlVnO  stands  for  "I1VJ  "ID  (Ex.  xxx. 
23)  ;  j&OrD  for  ftf  |H3  (Gen.  xli.  45)  ; 
D"1?11"!!!  "in  is  always  Dl|T'rlJ<"in.  The 
pronouns  r]X  and  |FIN,  2nd  p.  fern. 


sing,  and  plur.,  are  changed  into 
*DN,  pJIK  (the  obsolete  Heb.  forms) 
respectively ;  the  surF.  TJ  into  "JX ;  "]- 
into  *p ;  the  termination  of  the  2nd 
p.  s.  fem.  pnet.,  JV,  becomes  ^Pl,  like- 
the  first  p. ;  the  verbal  form  Aphel  is 
used  for  the  Hiphil;  »n")DTN  for 
'rnDTH  ;  the  medial  letter  of  the  verb 
V'y  is  sometimes  retained  as  X  or  % 
instead  of  being  dropped  as  in  the  Heb. 

Again,  verbs  of  the  form  H"?  have  the 
11  frequently  at  the  end  of  the  infin.  fut. 
and  part.,  instead  of  the  H.  Nouns  of 

the  schema  ^tDj?  (^3X,  &c.)  are  often 
spelt  ^IDJJ,  into" which  the  foim  bitDjJ 

is  likewise  occasionally  transformed. 
Of  distinctly  Samaritan  words  may 


416 


ON  THE  SAMARITAN  PENTATEUCH. 


8.  The  eiyliili  and  last  class  contains  alterations  made  in 
favour  or  on  behalf  of  Samaritan  theology,  hermeneutics,  and 
domestic  worship.  Thus  the  word  Elohim,  four  times  con- 
strued with  the  plural  verb  in  the  Hebrew  Pentateuch,  is  in 
the  Samaritan  Pent,  joined  to  the  singular  verb  (Gen.  xx. 
13,  xxxi.  53,  xxxv.  7 ;  Ex.  xxii.  9)  ;  and  further,  both  anthro- 
pomorphisms as  well  as  anthropopathistns  are  carefully 
expunged — a  practice  very  common  in  later  times.1  The 
last  and  perhaps  most  momentous  of  all  intentional  altera- 
tions is  the  constant  change  of  all  the  njll%  "God  will 
choose  a  spot,"  into  *ini,  "He  has  chosen,"  viz.  Gerizim, 
and  the  well-known  substitution  of  Gerizim  for  Ebal  in  Deut. 
xxvii.  4  (A.  V.  5)  : — "  It  shall  be  when  ye  be  gone  over 
Jordan,  that  ye  shall  set  up  these  stones  which  I  command 
you  this  day  on  Mount  Ebal  (Sam.  Gerizim),  and  there  shalt 
thou  build  an  altar  unto  the  Lord  thy  God,"  &c.  This 
passage  gains  a  certain  interest  from  Whiston  and  Kennicott 
having  charged  the  Jews  with  corrupting  it  from  Gerizim 
into  Ebal.  This  supposition,  however,  was  met  by  Kuther- 
forcl,  Parry,  Tychsen,  Lobstein,  Verschuir,  and  others,  and 


be  mentioned  :  "|n  (Gen.  xxxiv.  31)  = 
Tf*,  Tf}  (Chald.),  "like;"  D>nn,  for 
Heb.  Drnn,  "seal;"  nmb3,  "as 
though  it  budded,"  becomes  nmBKS 
=  Targ.  nrnBN  "ID  ;  DDH,  "  wise," 
reads  DISH ;  iy,  "spoil,"  H# ;  rri»», 
"  days,"  n»V. 

1  PWbnte  t?%  "  man  of  war,"  an 
expression  used  of  God  (Ex.  xv.  3), 
becomes  'D  "YO3,  "hero  of  war,"  the 
former  apparently  of  irreverent  import 
to  the  Samaritan  ear ;  for  'n  5]N  CT*1 
(Deut.  xxix.  19,  A.  V.  20),  lit.  "  And 
the  wrath  (no^e) '  of  the  Lord  shall 
smoke,"  Tl  SJK  "in*,  "  the  wrath  of  the 
Lord  will  be  kindled,"  is  substituted; 

^IHD  "11V  (Deut.  xxxii.  18),  "  the 
rock  (God)  which  begat  thee,"  is 
changed  into  "fchflQ  11V,  "  the  rock 
which  glorifies  thee;"  Gen.  xix.  12, 
D'BONn,  "the  men,"  used  of  the 
angels,  has  been  replaced  by  D^IC^DiT, 
"  the  angels."  Extreme  reverence  for 
the  patriarchs  changed  THX,  "  Cursed 


be  their  (Simeon  and  Levi's)  auger," 
into  TIN,  "  brilliant  is  their  anger" 
(Gen.  xlix.  7).  A  flagrant  falsification 
is  the  alteration,  in  an  opposite  sense, 
which  they  ventured  in  the  passage 
rpa1?  pB»  'n  TT,  "  The  beloved  of 
God  [.Benjamin,  the  founder  of  the 
Judajo-Davidian  empire,  hateful  to 
the  Samaritans]  shall  dwell  securely," 
transformed  by  them  into  the  almost 
senseless  nD3^>  pB»  'n  T  T,  "  The 
hand,  the  hand  of  God  will  rest  [if 
Hiph.  :  |3B*,  'will  cause  to  rest'] 
securely  "  (Deut.  xxxiii.  12).  Eeve- 
rence  for  the  Law  and  the  Sacred 
Eecords  gives  rise  to  more  enien- 
dations:  —  VK>nDl  (Deut.  xxv.  12, 
A.  V.  11),  "  by  his  secrets,"  becomes 

W33,  "by  his  flesh;"  nAjB", 
"  coibit  cum  ea  "  (Deut.  xxviii.  12), 
a^,  "concumbet  cum  ea;" 


to  the  dog  shall  ye 
throw  it  •'  (Ex.  xxii.  30;,  >(?&r\  ^!"P, 
"  ye  shall  indeed  throw  it  [away]." 


ON  THE  SAMARITAN  PENTATEUCH.  417 

we  need  only  add  that  it  is  completely  given  up  by  modern 
Biblical  scholars,  although  it  cannot  be  denied  that  there  is 
some  primd  facie  ground  for  a  doubt  upon  the  subject.  To 
this  class  also  belong  more  especially  interpolations  of  really 
existing  passages,  dragged  out  of  their  context  for  a  special 
purpose.  In  Exodus  as  well  as  in  Deuteronomy  the  Sam. 
has,  immediately  after  the  Ten  Commandments,  the  follow- 
ing insertions  from  Deut.  xxvii.  2-7  and  xi.  30:  "And  it 
shall  be  on  the  day  when  ye  shall  pass  over  Jordan  ...  ye 
shall  set  up  these  stones  ...  on  Mount  Gerizim  .  .  .  and 
there  shalt  thou  build  an  altar  .  .  .  '  That  mountain  '  on  the 
other  side  Jordan  by  the  way  where  the  sun  goeth  down  .  .  . 
in  the  champaign  over  against  Gilgal,  beside  the  plains 
of  Moreh,  *  over  against  Shechem :' " — this  last  superfluous 
addition,  which  is  also  found  in  Deut.  xi.  30  of  the  Sam. 
Pent.,  being  ridiculed  in  the  Talmud,  as  we  have  seen 
above. 

From  the  immense  number  of  these  worse  than  worthless 
variants  Gesenius  has  singled  out  four,  which  he  thinks 
preferable  on  the  whole  to  those  of  the  Masoretic  Text.  We 
will  confine  ourselves  to  mentioning  them,  and  refer  the 
reader  to  the  recent  commentaries  upon  them :  he  will  find 
that  they  too  have  since  been,  all  but  unanimously,  rejected.1 
(1.)  After  the  words,  "And  Cain  spoke  ("i£Nvi)  to  his 
brother  Abel "  (Gen.  iv.  8),  the  Sam.  adds,  "  let  us  go  into 
the  field," 2  in  ignorance  of  the  absol.  use  of  -)£tf,  "  to  say, 
speak  "  (comp.  Ex.  xix.  25 ;  2  Chr.  ii.  10,  xxxii.  34),  and  the 
absol.  -m  (Gen.  ix.  21).  (2.)  For  -1J1N  (Gen.  xxii.  13)  the 
-Sam.  reads  TJiN,  i-e.  instead  of  "  behind  him  a  ram,"  "  one 
ram."  (3.)  For  Q-|^  "T)Dn  (Gen.  xlix.  14),  "  an  ass  of  bone  " 
i.e.  a  strong  ass,  the  Sam.  has  QH3  T)D!1  (Targ.  D^J,  Syr, 

X>I^)-    And    (4)  for  P"!*!  (Gen-  xiv-   14)>   "he  led  forth 
his  trained  servants,"  the  Sam.  reads  p-p%  "  he  numbered." 
We  must  briefly  state,  in  concluding  this  portion  of  the 


1  Keil,  in  the  latest  edition  of  his  |  prove  genuine,  fall  to  the  ground  on 
i — j  ~  KOA  ^^4-^17  OOTTO  «iTVa«  fVio  <  closer  examination." 


Introd.  p.  590,  note  7,  says,  "  Even  the 
few  variants,  which  Gesenius  tries  to 


2   E 


418  ON  THE  SAMABITAN  PENTATEUCH. 

subject,  that  we  did  not  choose  this  classification  of  Gesenius 
because  it  appeared  to  us  to  be  either  systematic  (G-esenius 
says  himself :  "  Ceterum  facile  perspicitur  complures  in  his 
esse  lectiones  quarum  singulas  alius  ad  aliud  genus  referre 
forsitan  malit  ...  in  una  vel  altera  lectione  ad  aliam 
classem  referenda  haud  difficiles  erimus  .  .  .")  or  exhaustive, 
or  even  because  the  illustrations  themselves  are  unassailable 
in  point  of  the  reason  he  assigns  for  them ;  but  because, 
deficient  as  it  is,  it  has  at  once  and  for  ever  silenced  the 
utterly  unfounded  though  time-hallowed  claims  of  the 
Samaritan  Pentateuch.  It  was  only  necessary,  as  we  said 
before,  to  collect  a  great  number  of  variations  (or  to  take 
them  from  Walton),  to  compare  them  with  the  old  text  and 
with  each  other,  to  place  them  in  some  kind  of  order  before 
the  reader  and  let  them  tell  their  own  tale.  That  this  wa& 
not  done  during  the  two  hundred  years  of  the  contest  by 
a  single  one  of  the  combatants  is  certainly  rather  strange : — 
albeit  not  the  only  instance  of  the  kind. 

Important  additions  to  this  list  have,  as  we  hinted  before, 
been  made  by  Frankel,  such  as  the  Samaritans'  preference 
of  the  imperat.  for  the  3rd  pers. ; l  ignorance  of  the  use 
of  the  abl.  absol. ; 2  Galileanisms, — to  which  also  belongs  the 
permutation  of  the  letters  Ahevi 3  (comp.  Erub.  53,  -)fty,  -j&n> 
ION),  m  the  Samaritan  Cod. ;  the  occasional  softening  down 
of  the  ?)  into  3,*  of  3  into  j,  ^  into  j,  &c.,  and  chiefly  the 
presence  of  words  and  phrases  in  the  Sam.  which  are  not 
interpolated  from  parallel  passages,  but  are  entirely  wanting 
in  our  text.5  Frankel  derives  from  these  passages  chiefly 
the  conclusion  that  the  Sam.  Pent,  was,  partly  at  least, 


1  E.  g.  3-lpil  for  llp^  (Ex.  xii.  48)  ;    27,  after  m^il  the  word  &»  is  found 
T  (Ex.  xxxv.  10).  (LXX.)  ;   xliii.   28,  the  phrase 


3  E.  g.  Ppm  for  PplTl  (Gen/viii.  I  theEthnach;  xlvii.21, 

22);   pn  for  yiy  (Gen.  xxxvi.  28);  and  Ex.    xxxii.    32,   KBPI  NKTI   DN 

p^n  (Lev.  xi.  16),  &c.  W   DH    is    read.      An    exceedingly 

or  PBrM  (Gen.  xxxi.  35)  ;  difficult   and  un-Hebrew  passage   is 

for  nS^  (Ex.  XT.  10).  found  in  Ex.  xxiii.  19,  reading  r\V$  » 
^Gen.xxiii.2  afteryi^nnnp 

the  words  p&J?  ?$  are  added  ;  xxvii. 


OX  THE  SAMAKITAN  PENTATEUCH.  419 

emendated  from  the   LXX.,  Onkelos,  and  other  very  .late 
sources.     (See  below.) 

We  now  subjoin,  for  the  sake  of  completeness,  the  before- 
mentioned  thirteen  classes  of  Kirchheim,  in  the  original,  to 
which  we  have  added  the  translation  :— 


I-  DT"0  in  ryt  D^Wl  mSDin.  [Additions  and 
alterations  in  the  Samaritan  Pentateuch  in  favour  of  Mount 
Gerizim.] 

2.  JTitfte1?  J119DW     [Additions  for  the  purpose  of  com- 
pletion.] 

3.  1*)N3.     [Commentary,  .glosses.] 

4.  D^ini  D^ySH  syfrn.     [Change  of  verbs  and  moods. 

5.  JDDIW1  *)"6n.     [Change  of  nouns.] 

6.  nNMTT.      [Emendation   of    seeming    irregularities  by 
assimilating  forms,  &c.] 

7.  JlV/lINn  Jlll^n.     [Permutation  of  letters.] 
8-  D>VUD.     [Pronouns.] 

9.  )>£.     [Gender.] 

10.  JTODUn  nVJDN.     [Letters  added.] 

11.  DPPn  JIV/T)^.     [Addition  of  prepositions,  conjunctions, 
articles,  &c.] 

12.  1119')  yilp.     [Junction  of  separated,  and  separation  of 
joined  words.] 

13.  oSy  J11D%     [Chronological  alterations.] 


It  may,  perhaps,  not  be  quite  superfluous  to  observe,  before 
we  proceed  any  further,  that,  since  up  to  this  moment  no 
critical  edition  of  the  Sam.  Pent.,  or  even  an  examination  of 
the  Codices  since  Kennicott  —  who  can  only  be  said  to  have 
begun  the  work  —  has  been  thought  of,  the  treatment  of  the 
whole  subject  remains  a  most  precarious  task,  and  beset  with 
unexampled  difficulties  at  every  step  ;  and  also  that,  under 
these  circumstances,  a  more  or  less  scientific  arrangement  of 
isolated  or  common  Samaritan  mistakes  and  falsifications 
appears  to  us  to  be  a  subject  of  very  small  consequence 
indeed. 

It  is,  however,  this  same  rudimentary  state  of  investiga- 
tion —  after  two  centuries  and  a  half  of  fierce  discussion  — 

2  E  2 


420  ON  THE  SAMABITAN  PENTATEUCH. 

which  has  left  the  other  and  much  more  important  question 
of  the  Age  and  Origin  of  the  Sam.  Pent,  as  unsettled  to-day 
as  it  was  when  it  first  came  under  the  notice  of  European 
scholars.  For  our  own  part  we  cannot  but  think  that  as 
long  as — (1)  the  history  of  the  Samaritans  remains  involved 
in  the  obscurities  of  which  a  former  article  will  have  given 
an  account;  (2)  we  are  restricted  to  a  small  number  of 
comparatively  recent  Codices ;  (3)  neither  these  codices 
themselves  have,  as  has  just  been  observed,  been  thoroughly 
collated  and  recollated,  nor  (4)  more  than  a  feeble  beginning 
has  been  made  with  anything  like  a  collation  between  the 
various  readings  of  the  Sam.  Pent,  and  the  LXX.  (Walton 
omitted  the  greatest  number,  "cum  nullum  sensus  varie- 
tatem  constituant ")  ; — so  long  must  we  have  a  variety  of  the 
most  divergent  opinions,  all  based  on  "  probabilities,"  which 
are  designated  on  the  other  side  as  "  false  reasonings "  and 
"individual  crotchets,"  and  which,  moreover,  not  unfre- 
quently  start  from  flagrantly  false  premisses. 

We  shall,  under  these  circumstances,  confine  ourselves  to 
a  simple  enumeration  of  the  leading  opinions,  and  the  chief 
reasons  and  arguments  alleged  for  and  against  them  :— 

(1.)  The  Samaritan  Pentateuch  came  into  the  hands  of 
the  Samaritans  as  an  inheritance  from  the  ten  tribes  whom 
they  succeeded — so  the  popular  notion  runs.  Of  this 
opinion  are  J.  Morinus,  Walton,  Cappellus,  Kennicott, 
Michaelis,  Eichhorn,  Bauer,  Jahn,  Bertholdt,  Steudel, 
Mazade,  Stuart,  Davidson,  and  others.  Their  reasons  for  it 
may  be  thus  briefly  summed  up : — 

(a.)  It  seems  improbable  that  the  Samaritans  should  have 
accepted  their  code  at  the  hands  of  the  Jews  after  the  Exile, 
as  supposed  by  some  critics,  since  there  existed  an  intense 
hatred  between  the  two  nationalities. 

(&.)  The  Samaritan  Canon  has  only  the  Pentateuch  in 
common  with  the  Hebrew  Canon:  had  that  book  been 
received  at  the  period  when  the  Hagiographa  and  the 
Prophets  were  in  the  Jews'  hands,  it  would  be  surprising 
if  they  had  not  also  received  those. 

(c.)  The  Sam.  Letters,  avowedly  the  more  ancient,  are 


ON  THE  SAMARITAN  PENTATEUCH.  421 

found  in  the  Sam.  Cod. :  therefore  it  was  written  before  the 
alteration  of  the  character  into  the  square  Hebrew — which 
dates  from  the  end  of  the  Exile — took  place. 

[We  cannot  omit  briefly  to  draw  attention  here  to  a  most 
keen-eyed  suggestion  of  S.  D.  Luzzatto,  contained  in  a  letter 
to  E.  Kirchheim  (Carme  Shomron,  p.  106,  &c.),  by  the 
adoption  of  which  many  readings  in  the  Heb.  Codex,  now 
almost  unintelligible,  appear  perfectly  clear.  He  assumes 
that  the  copyist  who  at  some  time  or  other  after  Ezra  trans- 
cribed the  Bible  into  the  modern  square  Hebrew  character, 
from  the  ancient  copies  written  in  so-called  Samaritan, 
occasionally  mistook  Samaritan  letters  of  similar  form.1 
And  since  our  Sam.  Pent,  has  those  difficult  readings  in 
common  with  the  Mas.  Text,  that  other  moot  point,  whether 
it  was  copied  from  a  Hebrew  or  Samaritan  Codex,  would 
thus  appear  to  be  solved.  Its  constant  changes  of  i  and  T, 
>  and  •),  n  and  n  — letters  which  are  similar  in  Hebrew, 
but  not  in  Samaritan — have  been  long  used  as  a  powerful 
argument  for  the  Samaritans  having  received  the  Pent,  at  a 
very  late  period  indeed.] 

Since  the  above  opinion — that  the  Pent,  came  into  the 
hands  of  the  Samaritans  from  the  Ten  Tribes — is  the  most 
popular  one,  we  will  now  adduce  some  of  the  chief  reasons 
brought  against  it,  and  the  reader  will  see  by  the  somewhat 
feeble  nature  of  the  arguments  on  either  side,  that  the  last 
word  has  not  yet  been  spoken  in  the  matter. 

(a.)  There  existed  no  religious  animosity  whatsoever 
between  Judah  and  Israel  when  they  separated.  The  ten 
tribes  could  not  therefore  have  bequeathed  such  an  animosity 


1  E.  #.,  Is.  xi.  15,  Dtyl  instead  of  years  instead  of  forty  (comp.  Jer.  Sot. 

DW3  (adopted  by  Gesenius  in  Thes.  1),  accounted  for  by  the  D  (numerical 

p.  1017  a,  without  a  mention  of  its  letter  for  forty)  in  the  original  being 

source,  which  he,  however,  distinctly  mistaken  for  3  (twenty).     Again,  2 

avowed  to  Rosenmiiller — comp.  K>"D,  Chr.  xxii.  2,  forty  is  put  instead  of 

p.   107,  note  K) ;    Jer.  iii.   8,   tf"IN1  twenty  (comp.  2  K.  viii.  26) ;  2  K.  xxii. 

instead  of  Kim  ;  1  Sam.  xxiv.  11 ;  4,  Dm  for  -]JV1 ;  Ez.  iii.  12,  ^-Q  for 

Dnni    for   Dn«1;    Ezr     vi.   4;  rnn  nra&c.;— all  these  letters— /TT  and 

for  &nn;  EZ.  xxn.  20,  »nmm  for  .        ' 

'nnam;   Judg.  xv.  20;   ontw-  ^  ^  and  A'  3  and  *  *  and  * 

Samson's  reign  during  the  time  of  the  — resembling  each  other  very  closely. 
Philistines    being    given    as    twenty 


422  ON  THE  SAMARITAN  PENTATEUCH. 

to  those  who  succeeded  them,  and  who,  we  may  add,  pro- 
bably cared  as  little  originally  for  the  disputes  between 
Judah  and  Israel,  as  colonists  from  far-off  countries,  belong- 
ing to  utterly  different  races,  are  likely  to  care  for  the 
quarrels  of  the  aborigines  who  formerly  inhabited  the 
country.  On  the  contrary,  the  contest  between  the  slowly 
judaized  Samaritans  and  the  Jews,  only  dates  from  the 
moment  when  the  latter  refused  to  recognise  the  claims 
of  the  former,  as  belonging  to  the  people  of  God,  and  rejected 
their  aid  in  building  the  Temple :  why  then,  it  is  said,  should 
they  not  first  have  received  the  one  book  which  would  bring 
them  into  still  closer  conformity  with  the  returned  exiles,  at 
their  hands?  That  the  Jews  should  yet  have  refused  to 
receive  them  as  equals  is  no  more  surprising  than  that  the 
Samaritans  from  that  time  forward  took  their  stand  upon 
this  very  Law — altered  according  to  their  circumstances ; 
and  proved  from  it  that  they  and  they  alone  were  the 
Jews  /car  e'fo^v. 

(I.)  Their  not  possessing  any  other  book  of  the  Hebrew 
Canon  is  not  to  be  accounted  for  by  the  circumstance  that 
there  was  no  other  book  in  existence  at  the  time  of  the 
schism,  because  many  psalms  of  David,  writings  of  Solomon, 
&c.,  must  have  been  circulating  among  the  people.  But  the 
jealousy  with  which  the  Samaritans  regarded  Jerusalem, 
and  the  intense  hatred  which  they  naturally  conceived 
against  the  post-Mosaic  writers  of  national  Jewish  history, 
would  sufficiently  account  for  their  rejecting  the  other 
books,  in  all  of  which,  save  Joshua,  Judges,  and  Job,  either 
Jerusalem,  as  the  centre  of  worship,  or  David  and  his  House, 
are  extolled.  If,  however,  Loewe  has  really  found  with 
them,  as  he  reports  in  the  Allgem.  Zeitung  d.  Judenth.  April 
18th,  1839,  our  Book  of  Kings  and  Solomon's  Song  of 
songs,  —  which  they  certainly  would  not  have  received 
subsequently, — all  these  arguments  are  perfectly  gratuitous. 

(c.)  The  present  Hebrew  character  was  not  introduced  by 
Ezra  after  the  return  from  the  Exile,  but  came  into  use  at  a 
much  later  period.  The  Samaritans  might  therefore  have 
received  the  Pentateuch  at  the  hands  of  the  returned  exiles, 


ON  THE  SAMARITAN  PENTATEUCH.  123 

who,  'according  to  the  Talmud,  afterwards  changed  their 
writing,  and  in  the  Pentateuch  only,  so  as  to  distinguish  it 
from  the  Samaritan.  "  Originally,"  says  Mar  Sutra  (San- 
hedr.  xxi.  ty,  "  the  Pentateuch  was  given  to  Israel  in  Ibri 
writing  and  the  Holy  (Hebrew)  language:  it  was  again 
given  to  them  in  the  days  of  Ezra  in  the  Ashurith  writing 
and  Aramaic  language.  Israel  then  selected  the  Ashurith 
writing  and  the  Holy  language,  and  left  to  the  Hediotes 
('IStwrat)  the  Ibri  writing  and  the  Aramaic  language.  Who 
are  the  Hediotes?  The  Cuthim  (Samaritans).  What  is 
Ibri  writing?  The  Libonaah  (Samaritan)."  It  is  well 
known  also  that  the  Maccabean  coins  bear  Samaritan  in- 
scriptions :  so  that  "  Hediotes  "  would  point  to  the  common 
use  of  the  Samaritan  character  for  ordinary  purposes,  down 
to  a  very  late  period. 

(2.)  The  second  leading  opinion  on  the  age  and  origin  of 
the  Sam.  Pent,  is  that  it  was  introduced  by  Manasseh 
(comp.  Josephus,  Ant.  xi.  8,  §  2,  4)  at  the  time  of  the  founda- 
tion of  the  Samaritan  Sanctuary  on  Mount  Gerizim  (Ant. 
van  Dale,  E.  Simon,  Prideaux,  Fulda,  Hasse,  De  Wette, 
Gesenius,  Hupfeld,  Hengstenberg,  Keil,  &c.).  In  support  of 
this  opinion  are  alleged,  the  idolatry  of  the  Samaritans 
before  they  received  a  Jewish  priest  through  Esarhaddon 
2  K.  xvii.  24-33),  and  the  immense  number  of  readings  com- 
mon to  the  LXX.  and  this  Code,  against  the  Masoretic  Text. 

(3.)  Other,  but  very  isolated  notions,  are  those  of  Morin, 
Le  Clerc,  Poncet,  &c.,  that  the  Israelitish  priest  sent  by  the 
king  of  Assyria  to  instruct  the  new  inhabitants  in  the 
religion  of  the  country  brought  the  Pentateuch  with  him. 
Further,  that  the  Samaritan  Pentateuch  was  the  production 
of  an  impostor,  Dositheus  (^tDDH  in  Talmud),  who  lived 
during  the  time  of  the  Apostles,  and  who  falsified  the  sacred 
records  in  order  to  prove  that  he  was  the  Messiah  (Ussher). 
Against  which  there  is  only  this  to  be  observed,  that  there  is 
not  the  slightest  alteration  of  such  a  nature  to  be  found. 
Finally,  that  it  is  a  very  late  and  faulty  recension,  with 
additions  and  corruptions  of  the  Masoretic  Text  (6th  century 
after  Christ),  into  which  glosses  from  the  LXX.  had  been 


424  ON  THE  SAMAEITAN  PENTATEUCH. 

received  (Frankel).  Many  other  suggestions  have  been 
made,  but  we  cannot  here  dwell  upon  them:  suffice  it  to 
have  mentioned  those  to  which  a  certain  popularity  and 
authority  attaches. 

Another  question  has  been  raised  : — Have  all  the  variants 
which  we  find  in  our  copies  been  introduced  at  once,  or  are 
they  the  work  of  many  generations  ?  From  the  number  of 
vague  opinions  on  that  point,  we  have  only  room  here  to 
adduce  that  of  Azariah  de  Eossi,  who  traces  many  of  the- 
glosses  (Class  2)  both  in  the  Sam.  and  in  the  LXX.  to  an 
ancient  Targum  in  the  hands  of  the  people  at  the  time  of 
Ezra,  and  refers  to  the  Talmudical  passage  of  Nedar.  37  : 
"And  he  read  in  the  Book  of  the  Law  of  God — this  is 
Mikra,  the  Pentateuch ;  tfniBD  explanatory,  this  is  Targum" 
Considering  that  no  Masorah  fixed  the  letters  and  signs  of 
the  Samar.  Codex,  and  that,  as  we  have  noticed,  the  prin- 
cipal object  was  to  make  it  read  as  smoothly  as  possible,  it 
is  not  easily  Been  why  each  succeeding  century  should  not 
have  added  its  own  emendations.  But,  here  too,  investi- 
gation still  wanders  about  in  the  mazes  of  speculation. 

The  chief  opinions  with  respect  to  the  agreement  of  the 
numerous   and  as   yet  uninvestigated  —  even  uncounted  — 
readings  of  the  LXX,  (of  which  likewise  no  critical  edition 
exists  as  yet),  and  the  Sam.  Pent,  are  : — 

1.  That  the  LXX.   have  translated  from  the  Sam.  (De 
Dieu,  Selden,  Hottinger,  Hassencamp,  Eichhorn,  &c.). 

2.  That  mutual  interpolations  have  taken  place  (Grotius, 
Ussher,  Eavius,  &c.). 

3.  That  both  Versions  were  formed  from  Hebrew  Codices, 
which  differed  among  themselves  as  well  as  from  the  one  which 
afterwards  obtained  public  authority  in  Palestine ;  that  how- 
ever very  many  wilful  corruptions  and  interpolations  have 
crept  in  in  later  times  (Gesenius). 

4.  That  the  Samar.  has,  in  the  main,  been  altered  from  the 
LXX.  (Frankel). 

It  must,  on  the  other  hand,  be  stated  also,  that  the  Sam. 
and  LXX.  quite  as  often  disagree  with  each  other,  and  follow 
each  the  Masor.  Text.  Also,  that  the  quotations  in  the  K  T. 


ON  THE  SAMARITAN  PENTATEUCH.  425 

from  the  LXX.,  where  they  coincide  with  the  Sam.  against 
the  Hebr.  Text,  are  so  small  in  number  and  of  so  unim- 
portant a  nature  that  they  cannot  be  adduced  as  any  argu- 
ment whatsoever. 

The  following  is  a  list  of  the  MSS.  of  the  Sam.  Pent,  now 
in  European  Libraries  [Kennicott]  : — 

No.  1.  Oxford  (Ussher)  Bodl.,  fol.,  No.  3127.  Perfect, 
except  the  20  first  and  9  last  verses. 

No.  2.  Oxford  (Ussher)  Bodl.,  4to.,  No.  3128,  with  an 
Arabic  version  in  Sam.  characters.  Imperfect.  Wanting  the 
whole  of  Leviticus  and  many  portions  of  the  other  books. 

No.  3.  Oxford  (Ussher)  Bodl.,  4to.,  No.  3129.  Wanting 
many  portions  in  each  book. 

No.  4.  Oxford  (Ussher,  Laud)  Bodl.,  4to.,  No.  624.  De- 
fective in  parts  of  Deut. 

No.  5.  Oxford  (Marsh)  Bodl.,  12mo.,  No.  15.  Wanting 
some  verses  in  the  beginning  ;  21  chapters  obliterated. 

No.  6.  Oxford  (Pocock)  Bodl.,  24mo.,  No.  5328.  Parts  of 
leaves  lost ;  otherwise  perfect. 

No.  7.  London  (Ussher)  Br.  Mus.  Claud.  B.  8.  Vellum. 
Complete.  254  leaves. 

No.  8.  Paris  (Peiresc)  Imp.  Libr.,  Sam.  No.  1.  Kecent 
MS.  containing  the  Hebr.  and  Sam.  Texts,  with  an  Arab. 
Vers.  in  the  Sam.  character.  Wanting  the  first  34  chapters,, 
and  very  defective  in  many  places. 

No.  9.  Paris  (Peiresc)  Imp.  Libr.,  Sam.  No.  2.  Ancient 
MS.,  wanting  first  17  chapters  of  Gen. ;  and  all  Deut.  from 
the  7th  chapter.  Houbigant,  however,  quotes  from  Gen.  x. 
11  of  this  Codex,  a  rather  puzzling  circumstance. 

No.  10.  Paris  (Harl.  de  Sancy)  Oratory,  No.  1.  The 
famous  MS.  of  P.  della  Yalle. 

No.  11.  Paris  (Dom.  Nolin)  Oratory,  No.  2.    Made-up  copy. 

No.  12.  Paris  (Libr.  St.  Genev.).     Of  little  value. 

No.  13.  Eome  (Peir.  and  Barber.)  Vatican,  No.  106. 
Hebr.  and  Sam.  texts,  with  Arab.  Vers.  in  Sam.  character. 
Very  defective  and  recent.  Dated  the  7th  century  (?). 

No.  14.  Home  (Card.  Cobellutius),  Vatican.  Also  sup- 
posed to  be  of  the  7th  century,  but  very  doubtful. 


426 


ON  THE  SAMAEITAN  PENTATEUCH. 


No.  15.  Milan  (Ambrosian  Libr.)  Said  to  be  very  ancient  ; 
not  collated. 

No.  16.  Leyden  (Golius  MS.),  fol.,  No.  1.  Said  to  be 
complete. 

No.  17.  Gotha  (Ducal  Libr.).     A  fragment  only. 

No.  18.  London,  Count  of  Paris'  Library.     With  Version. 

Printed  editions  are  contained  in  the  Paris  and  Walton 
Polyglots ;  and  a  separate  reprint  from  the  latter  was  made 
by  Blayney,  Oxford,  1790.  A  Facsimile  of  the  20th  chapter 
of  Exodus,  from  one  of  the  Ndblus  MSS.,  has  been  edited,with 
portions  of  the  corresponding  Masoretic  text,  and  a  Russian 
Translation  and  Introduction,  byLevysohn,  Jerusalem  I860.1 


II.  VERSIONS. 

1.  Samaritan. — The  origin,  author,  and  age  of  the  Sama- 
ritan Version  of  the  Five  Books  of  Moses,  has  hitherto — so 
Eichhorn  quaintly  observes — "  always  been  a  golden  apple  to 
the  investigators,  and  will  very  probably  remain  so,  until 
people  leave  off  venturing  decisive  judgments  upon  historical 
subjects  which  no  one  has  recorded  in  antiquity."  And, 
indeed,  modern  investigators,  keen  as  they  have  been,  have 
done  little  towards  the  elucidation  of  the  subject.  According 
to  the  Samaritans  themselves  (De  Sacy  Mem.  3 ;  Paulus ; 
Winer),  their  high-priest  Nathaniel,  who  died  about  20  B.C., 
is  its  author.  Gesenius  puts  its  date  a  few  years  after 
Christ.  Juynboll  thinks  that  it  had  long  been  in  use  in  the 
second  post-Christian  century.  Frankel  places  it  in  the 
post-Mohammedan  time.  Other  investigators  date  it  from 
the  time  of  Esarhaddon's  priest  (Schwarz),  or  either  shortly 
before  or  after  the  foundation  of  the  temple  on  Mount 
Gerizirn.  It  seems  certain,  however,  that  it  was  composed 


1  The  original  intention  of  the 
Russian  Government  to  publish  the 
whole  Codex  in  the  same  manner 
seems  to  have  been  given  up  for  the 
present.  We  can  only  hope  that,  if 
the  work  is  ever  taken  up  again,  it 
will  full  into  more  competent  hands. 


Mr.  Levysohn's  Introduction,  brief  as 
it  is,  shows  him  to  be  utterly  wanting 
both  in  scholarship  and  critical  acu- 
men, and  to  be,  moreover,  entirely  un- 
acquainted with  the  fact  that  his  new 
discoveries  have  been  disposed  of 
some  hundred  and  fifty  years  since. 


ON  THE  SAMAKITAN  PENTATEUCH.  427 

before  the  destruction  of  the  second  temple ;  and  being 
intended,  like  the  Targums,  for  the  use  of  the  people  exclu- 
sively, it  was  written  in  the  popular  Samaritan  idiom,  a 
mixture  of  Hebrew,  Aramaic,  and  Syriac. 

In  this  version  the  original  has  been  followed,  with  a  very 
few  exceptions,  in  a  slavish  and  sometimes  perfectly  childish 
manner,  the  sense  evidently  being  of  minor  consideration. 
As  a  very  striking  instance  of  this  may  be  adduced  the 
translation  of  Deut.  iii.  9 :  "  The  Zidonians  call  Hermon 
p-lttf  (Shirion),  and  the  Amorites  call  it  -)^^(Shenir)." 
The  translator  deriving  ynttf  from  -)t#  "  prince,  master," 
renders  it  p-|  "  masters ;  "  and  finding  the  letters  reversed  in 
the  appellation  of  the  Amorites  as  T^ttf,  reverses  also  the 
sense  in  his  version,  and  translates  it  by  "  slaves  "  ]TQy  ttf  D ! 
In  other  cases,  where  no  Samaritan  equivalent  could  be  found 
for  a  Hebrew  word,  the  translator,  instead  of  paraphrasing  it, 
simply  transposes  its  letters,  so  as  to  make  it  look  Samaritan. 
Occasionally  he  is  misled  by  the  orthography  of  the  original : 
:  N13N  p  ON,  "  If  so,  where  ....?"  he  renders  nTDN  p  DN, 
"  If  so,  I  shall  be  wrath  :  "  mistaking  N13N  ^or  ™,  ^rom  *}** 
"  anger."  On  the  whole  it  may  be  considered  a  very  valuable 
aid  towards  the  study  of  the  Samar.  Text,  on  account  of  its 
very  close  verbal  adherence.  A  few  cases,  however,  may  be 
brought  forward,  where  the  Version  has  departed  from  the 
Text,  either  under  the  influence  of  popular  religious  notions, 
or  for  the  sake  of  explanation.  "  We  pray  " — so  they  write 
to  Scaliger — "  every  day  in  the  morning  and  in  the  evening, 
as  it  is  said,  the  one  lamb  shalt  thou  prepare  in  the  morning 
and  the  second  in  the  evening ;  we  bow  to  the  ground  and 
worship  God."  Accordingly,  we  find  the  translator  rendering 
the  passage,  "  And  Isaac  went  to  '  walk '  (mt^>)  in  the  field," 
by — "  and  Isaac  went  to  pray  (JIN^D1?)  in  the  field."  "  And 
Abraham  rose  in  the  morning  ("ip'Ol),"  is  rendered  *6iO, 
"  in  the  prayer,"  &c.  Anthropomorphisms  are  avoided.  "  The 
image  (/oiDJ"l)  °f  Grod"  is  rendered  Jlft^,  "the  glory." 

,  "  the  mouth  of  Jehovah."  is  transformed  into 
,  "  the  word  of  Jehovah."     For  D^n^K,  "  God," 
Angel "   is   frequently  found,  &c.      A  great  difficulty  is 


428 


ON  THE  SAMARITAN  PENTATEUCH. 


offered  by  the  proper  names  which  this  version  often  substi- 
tutes, they  being,  in  many  cases,  less  intelligible  than  the 
original  ones.1  The  similarity  it  has  with  Onkelos  occasion- 
ally amounts  to  complete  identity,  for  instance  — 

Onkelos  in  Polijglott.  —  Num.  vi.  1,  2. 


ntcno  ny  mrr 

wnsr  n»  xnnx  IN  -na  pr6 
/nn  IDTO  :  mm  Dip  ~vzb 
nnno  toi  vw  N1?  \ny  iom  ^rn  mn 


Sam.  Vers.  in  Barberini  Trigloit.  —  Num.  vi.  1,  2. 

:  "i^D1?  rrt^iD  D^  mn^ 
ID  nn»  w  -1^ 
IT  zarrn  ion  p  :  mm? 


1  A  list  of  the  more  remarkable  of 
these,  in  the  case  of  geographical 
names,  is  subjoined  :  — 

Gen.  viii.  4,  for  Ararat,     Sarendib, 


x.  10,  „  SLinar,  Tsofah, 
nSIV  (?  Zobah). 

11,  „  Asshur,  A  stun, 
p&Gp. 

—  „  Rehoboth,  Satcan, 

P&D  (?  Sitta- 
cene). 

—  ,,  Calah,  Laksah, 


12,  „  Eesen,Asfah,n£)Dy. 
30,  „  Mesha,        Mesbal, 


xi.  9,  „  Babel,  Lilak, 
xiii.  3,  „  Ai,  Cefrah,  m£Q  (? 

Cephirah,    Josh. 

ix.  17). 
xiv.  5,  „  Ashteroth  Karnaim, 

Afinith  Karniah, 


—  „  Ham,Lishah, 

—  6,  „  El  Paran,  Pe'ishah, 

&c., 


—  14,  „  Dan,Banias,  D 

—  15,  „  Hobah,Fogah, 


Gen.  xiv.  17,  for  Shaveh,      Mifneli, 

rusD. 

xv.    8,  „  Euphrates,Shalmahr 


—  20,  „  Rephaim,     Chasah, 

HKOTL 
xx.    1,  „  Gerar,        Askelun, 

rhpoy. 

xxvi.    2,  „  Mitsraim,        Nefik, 
p'BJ  (?  Exodus). 

xxxvi.  8,  9,  &c.  „  Seir,  Gablah,  n^3i 

(Jebal). 
37,  „  Rehoboth,      Fathir 

^ns. 

Num.  xxi.  33,  „  Bashan,      Batlmin, 

\^r\2  (Batanaea). 

xxxiv.  10,  „  Shepham,'Abamiahv 

n^ny      (Apa- 

masa). 
11,  ,,  Shepham,'Afamiahr 


Deut.  ii.  9,  „  Ar    (iy),    Arshah, 

tumt 

iii.  4,  „  Argob,     Rigobaah, 


—  17,  „  Chinnereth,        Ge- 

nesar,  "ID33. 
iv.  48,  „  Sion,     Tur    Telga, 

N^n  1113  (Jebel 
et  Telj). 


ON  THE  SAMAKITAN  PENTATEUCH.  429 

But  no  safe  conclusion  as  to  the  respective  relation  of  the 
two  versions  can  be  drawn  from  this. 

This  Version  has  likewise,  in  passing  through  the  hands  of 
copyists  and  commentators,  suffered  many  interpolations  and 
corruptions.  The  first  copy  of  it  was  brought  to  Europe  by 
De  la  Valle,  together  with  the  Sam.  Text,  in  1616.  Joh. 
JSTedrinus  first  published  it  together  with  a  faulty  Latin 
translation  in  the  Paris  Polyglott,  whence  it  was,  with  a 
few  emendations,  reprinted  in  Walton,  with  some  notes  by 
Castellus.  Single  portions  of  it  appeared  in  Halle,  ed.  by 
Cellarius,  1705,  and  by  Uhlemann,  Leipz.,  1837.  Compare 
Gesenius,  De  Pent.  Sam.  Origine,  &c.,  and  Winer's  mono- 
graph, De  Versionis  Pent.  Sam.  Indole,  &c.,  Leipzig,  1817. 

2.  To  ^afjuapeiTiicov.     The  hatred  between  the  Samaritans 
and  the  Jews  is  supposed  to  have  caused  the  former  to  prepare 
a  Greek  translation  of  their  Pent,  in  opposition  to  the  LXX. 
of  the  Jews.     In  this  way  at  least  the  existence  of  certain 
fragments  of  a  Greek  Version  of  the  Sam.  Pent.,  preserved 
in   some   MSS.  of    the   LXX.,   together   with   portions   of 
Aquila,   Symmachus,   Theodotion,   &c.,    is    accounted    for. 
These  fragments  are  supposed  to  be  alluded  to  by  the  Greek 
Fathers  under  the  name  ^a^apeiTiicbv.     It  is  doubtful  how- 
ever whether  it  ever  existed  (as  Gesenius,  Winer,  Juynboll, 
suppose)  in  the  shape  of  a   complete  ^translation,  or  only 
designated  (as  Castellus,  Voss,  Herbst  hold)  a  certain  number 
of  scholia  translated  from  the  Sam.  Version.     Other  critics 
again  (Havernick,  Hengstenberg,  &c.)  see  in  it  only  a  cor- 
rected edition  of  certain  passages  of  the  LXX. 

3.  In  1070  an  Arabic  Version  of  the  Sam.  Pent,  was  made 
by  Abu  Said  in  Egypt,  on  the  basis  of  the  Arabic  translation 
of  Saadjah  haggaon.     Like  the  original  Samaritan  it  avoids 
Anthropomorphisms   and  Anthropopathisms,  replacing  the 
latter  by  Euphemisms,  besides   occasionally  making   some 
slight  alterations,  more  especially  in  proper  nouns.     It  is 
extant  in  several  MS.  copies  in  European  libraries,  and  is 
now  in  course  of  being  edited  by  Kuenen,  Leyden,  1850-54, 
&c.     It  appears  to  have  been  drawn  up  from  the  Sam.  Text, 
not  from  the  Sam.  Version ;  the  Hebrew  words  occasionally 


430  ON  THE  'SAMAKITAN  PENTATEUCH. 

remaining  unaltered  in  the  translation.1  Often  also  it 
renders  the  original  differently  from  the  Samar.  Version.2 
Principally  noticeable  is  its  excessive  dread  of  assigning 
to  God  anything  like  human  attributes,  physical  or  mental. 
For  DVT1?^  m»T,  "  God,"  we  find  (as  in  Saadiah  sometimes) 
*XM  £y^,  "  the  Angel  of  God ;  "  for  "  the  eyes  of  God  "  we 
have  (Deut.  ix.  12)  *XN  *k^U  "  the  Beholding  of  God." 
For  "Bread  of  God:"  +•$  "the  necessary,"  &c.  Again,  it 
occasionally  adds  honourable  epithets  where  the  Scripture 
seems  to  have  omitted  them,  &c.  Its  language  is  far  from 
elegant  or  even  correct ;  and  its  use  must  likewise  be  con- 
fined to  the  critical  study  of  the  Sam.  Text. 

4.  To  this  Arabic  version  Abu  Barachat,  a  Syrian,  wrote 
in  1208  a  somewhat  paraphrastic  commentary,  which  has  by 
degrees  come  to  be  looked  upon  as  a  new  Version — the 
Syriae,  in  contradistinction  to  the  Arabic,  and  which  is  often 
confounded  with  it  in  the  MSS.  On  both  Kecensions  see 
Eichhorn,  Gesenius,  Juynboll,  &c. 


III.  SAMAEITAN  LITERATURE. 

It  may  perhaps  not  be  superfluous  to  add  here  a  concise 
account  of  the  Samaritan  literature  in  general,  since  to  a 
certain  degree  it  bears  upon  our  subject. 

1.  Chronicon  Samaritanum.  —  Of  the  Pentateuch  and  its 
Versions  we  have  spoken.  We  have  also  mentioned  that 
the  Samaritans  have  no  other  book  of  our  Keceived  Canon. 
"  There  is  no  Prophet  but  Moses  "  is  one  of  their  chief 
dogmas,  and  fierce  are  the  invectives  in  which  they  indulge 
against  men  like  Samuel,  "a  Magician  and  an  Infidel," 


E.  g.   Ex.   xiii.    12,   Dm  IBB 


renders  .    Gen>   xli- 


(Sam.  Ver.   Dm  TVinD  ?D)  remains     ,0         -*r       * 

(Sam.  Ver.  T1H3  =  K^pvf\  the  Arab. 
AT  :  xxi.  3,  n^N  ^2  (Sam. 

translates  ^\  6  JL^!  =  V  ^ 
3  A  word;  it  may  be  observed  by 

2  Tims  msy,  Gen.  xlix.  11  (Sam.    the  way,  taken  by  the  Mohammedans 
Yer.  nmp,  "his  city")-  the   Arab,  j  from  the  Rabbinical  ("lp*JD)  "IS13. 


Ver.  nn«  }nDD)  is  given  s\ 


ON  THE  SAMARITAN  PENTATEUCH.  431 

(Chron.  Sam.);  Eli;  Solomon,  "Shiloh"  (Gen.  xlix.  10), 
"  i.e.  the  man  who  shall  spoil  the  Law  and  whom  many 
nations  will  follow  because  of  their  own  licentiousness  "  (De 
Saey,  Mem.  4)  ;  Ezra  "  cursed  for  ever  "  (Lett,  to  Huntington, 
&c.).  Joshua  alone,  partly  on  account  of  his  being  an  Ephrai- 
mite,  partly  because  Shechem  was  selected  by  him  as  the 
scene  of  his  solemn  valedictory  address,  seems  to  have  found 
favour  in  their  eyes ;  but  the  Book  of  Joshua,  which  they 
perhaps  possessed  in  its  original  form,  gradually  came  to 
form  only  the  groundwork  of  a  fictitious  national  Samaritan 
history,  overgrown  with  the  most  fantastic  and  anachronistic 
legends.  This  is  the  so-called  "Samaritan  Joshua,"  or 
Chronicon  Samaritanum  (^  ^  £**$•»  j**»)>  sen^  ^°  Bcaliger 
by  the  Samaritans  of  Cairo  in  1584.  It  was  edited  by  Juyn- 
boll  (Ley den  1848),  and  his  acute  investigations  have  shown 
that  it  was  redacted  into  its  present  form  about  A.D.  1300, 
out  of  four  special  documents,  three  of  which  were  Arabic, 
and  one  Hebrew  (i.  e.  Samaritan).  The  Leyden  MS.  in  two 
parts,  which  Gesenius,  De  Sam.  TheoL  p.  8.  n.  18,  thinks 
unique,  is  dated  A.H.  764-919  (A.D.  1362-1513) ;— the  Cod. 
in  the  Brit.  Museum,  lately  acquired,  dates  A.H.  908  (AJX 
1502).  The  chronicle  embraces  the  time  from  Joshua  to 
about  A.D.  350,  and  was  originally  written  in,  or  subsequently 
translated  into,  Arabic.  After  eight  chapters  of  introductory 
matter  begins  the  early  history  of  "  Israel "  under  "  King 
Joshua,"  who,  among  other  deeds  of  arms,  wages  war,  with 
300,000  mounted  men — "  half  Israel " — against  two  kings  of 
Persia.  The  last  of  his  five  "  royal  "^successors  is  Shimshon 
(Samson),  the  handsomest  and  most  powerful  of  them  all. 
These  reigned  for  the  space  of  250  years,  and  were  followed 
by  five  high-priests,  the  last  of  whom  was  Usi  (? — Uzzi,  Ezr. 
vii.  4).  With  the  history  of  Eli,  "  the  seducer,"  which  then 
follows,  and  Samuel  "  a  sorcerer, "§  the  account  by  a  sudden 
transition  runs  off  to  Nebuchadnezzar  (ch.  45),  Alexander 
(ch.  46),  and  Hadrian  (47),  and  closes  suddenly  at  the  time 
of  Julian  the  Apostate. 

We  shall  only  adduce  here  a  single  specimen  out  of  the 


432  ON  THE  SAMABITAN  PENTATEUCH. 

45th  chapter  of  the  Book,  which  treats  of  the  subject  of  the 
Pentateuch : — 

Nebuchadnezzar  was  king  of  Persia  (Mossul),  and  con- 
quered the  whole  world,  also  the  kings  of  Syria.  In  the 
thirteenth  year  of  their  subjugation  they  rebelled,  together 
with  the  kings  of  Jerusalem  (Kodsh).  Whereupon  the 
Samaritans,  to  escape  from  the  vengeance  of  their  pursuer, 
fled,  and  Persian  colonists  took  their  place.  A  curse,  how- 
ever, rested  upon  the  land,  and  the  new  immigrants  died 
from  eating  of  its  fruits  (Joseph.  Ant.  ix.  14.  §  3).  The  chiefs 
of  Israel  (i.e.  Samaritans),  being  asked  the  reason  of  this  by 
the  king,  explained  it  by  the  abolition  of  the  worship  of  God. 
The  king  upon  this  permitted  them  to  return  and  to  erect  a 
temple,  in  which  work  he  promised  to  aid  them,  and  he  gave 
them  a  letter  to  all  their  dispersed  brethren.  The  whole 
Dispersion  now  assembled,  and  the  Jews  said,  "  We  will  now 
go  up  into  the  Holy  City  (Jerusalem)  and  live  there  in 
unity."  But  the  sons  of  Harun  (Aaron)  and  of  Joseph  (i.e; 
the  priests  and  the  Samaritans)  insisted  upon  going  to  the 
•"  Mount  of  Blessing,"  Gerizim.  The  dispute  was  referred  to 
the  king,  and  while  the  Samaritans  proved  their  case  from 
the  books  of  Moses,  the  Jews  grounded  their  preference  for 
Jerusalem  on  the  post-Mosaic  books.  The  superior  force 
of  the  Samaritan  argument  was  fully  recognised  by  the  king. 
But  as  each  side — by  the  mouth  of  their  spokesmen,  San- 
ballat  and  Zerubbabel  respectively — charged  the  other  with 
basing  its  claims  on  a  forged  document,  the  sacred  books  of 
each  party  were  subjected  to  the  ordeal  of  fire.  The  Jewish 
Eecord  was  immediately  consumed,  while  the  Samaritan 
leaped  three  times  from  the  flames  into  the  king's  lap :  the 
third  time,  however,  a  portion  of  the  scroll,  upon  which  the 
king  had  spat,  was  found  to  have  been  consumed.  Thirty- 
six  Jews  were  immediately  beheaded,  and  the  Samaritans, 
to  the  number  of  300,000,  wept,  and  all  Israel  worshipped 
henceforth  upon  Mount  Gerizim — "  and  so  we  will  ask  our 
help  from  the  grace  of  God,  who  has  in  His  mercy  granted 
all  these  things,  and  in  Him  we  will  confide." 

2.  From   this  work  chiefly  has  been   compiled  another 


ON  THE  SAMARITAN  PENTATEUCH.  433 

Chronicle  written  in  the  14th  century  (1355),  by  Abu'l 
Fatah.1  This  comprises  the  history  of  the  Jews  and  Sama- 
ritans from  Adam  to  A.H.  756  and  798  (A.D.  1355  and  1397) 
respectively  (the  forty-two  years  must  have  been  added  by  a 
later  historiographer).  It  is  of  equally  low  historical  value  ; 
its  only  remarkable  feature  being  its  adoption  of  certain 
Talmudical  legends,  which  it  took  at  second  hand  from 
Josippon  ben  Gorion.  According  to  this  chronicle,  the 
Deluge  did  not  cover  Gerizim,  in  the  same  manner  as  the 
Midrash  (Ber.  Rob.)  exempts  the  whole  of  Palestine  from  it. 
A  specimen,  likewise  on  the  subject  of  the  Pentateuch,  may 
not  be  out  of  place  : — 

In  the  year  of  the  world  4150,  and  in  the  10th  year  of 
Philadelphus,  this  king  wished  to  learn  the  difference  be- 
tween the  Law  of  the  Samaritans,  and  that  of  the  Jews.  He 
therefore  bade  both  send  him  some  of  their  elders.  The 
Samaritans  delegated  Ahron,  Sumla,  and  Hudmaka:  the 
Jews,  Eleazar  only.  The  king  assigned  houses  to  them,  and 
gave  them  each  an  adept  of  the  Greek  language,  in  order 
that  he  might  assist  them  in  their  translation.  The  Sama- 
ritans rendered  only  their  Pentateuch  into  the  language  of 
the  land,  while  Eleazar  produced  a  translation  of  the  whole 
Canon.  The  king,  perceiving  variations  in  the  respective 
Pentateuchs,  asked  the  Samaritans  the  reason  of  it.  Where- 
upon they  replied  that  these  differences  chiefly  turned  upon 
two  points.  (1.)  God  had  chosen  the  Mount  of  Gerizim  : 
and  if  the  Jews  were  right,  why  was  there  no  mention  of  it  in 
their  Thora  ?  (2.)  The  Samaritans  read,  Deut,  xxxii.  35,  DV1? 
"  to  the  day  of  vengeance  and  reward" — the  Jews 
^,  "  Mine  is  vengeance  and  reward  " — which  left  it 
uncertain  whether  that  reward  was  to  be  given  here  or  in  the 
world  to  come.  The  king  then  asked  what  was  their  opinion 
about  the  Jewish  prophets  and  their  writings,  and  they 
replied,  "Either  they  must  have  said  and  contained  what 


2s® 


Imp.  Library,  Paris).  Two  copies  in 
Berlin  Library  (Feterinann,  Kosen) 
recently  acquired. 

2  F 


434  ON  THE  SAMAE1TAN  PENTATEUCH. 

stood  in  the  Pentateuch,  and  then  their  saying  it  again  was 
superfluous ;  or  more ;  or  less ; l  either  of  which  was  again 
distinctly  prohibited  in  the  Thora ;  or  finally  they  must 
have  changed  the  Laws,  and  these  were  unchangeable."  A 
Greek  who  stood  near,  observed  that  Laws  must  be  adapted 
to  different  times,  and  altered  accordingly ;  whereupon  the 
Samaritan  proved  that  this  was  only  the  case  with  human, 
not  with  Divine  Laws :  moreover,  the  seventy  Elders  had 
left  them  the  explicit  command  not  to  accept  a  word  beside 
the  Thora.  The  king  now  fully  approved  of  their  translation, 
and  gave  them  rich  presents.  But  to  the  Jews  he  strictly 
enjoined,  not  even  to  approach  Mount  Gerizim.  There  can 
be  no  doubt  that  there  is  a  certain  historical  fact,  however 
contorted,  at  the  bottom  of  this  (comp.  the  Talmudical  and 
other  accounts  of  the  LXX.),  but  we  cannot  now  further 
pursue  the  subject.  A  lengthened  extract  from  this  chronicle 
— the  original  text  with  a  German  translation — is  given  by 
Schnurrer  in  Paulus'  Neue  Repertorium,  1790,  117-159. 

3.  Another  "  historical "  work  is  the  jf^W  VUT  on  the 
history   and  genealogy   of  the  patriarchs,  from    Adam    to 
Moses,  attributed  to  Moses  himself;  perhaps  the  same  which 
Petermann  saw  at  Ndblus,  and  which  consisted  of  sixteen 
vellum  leaves  (supposed,  however,  to  contain  the  history  of 
the  world  down  to  the  end).     An  anonymous  recent  com- 
mentary on  it,  A.H.  1200,  A.D.  1784,  is  in  the  Brit.  Mus.  (No. 
1140,  Add.). 

4.  Of  other  Samaritan  works,  chiefly  in  Arabic — their  Sama- 
ritan and  Hebrew  literature  having  mostly  been  destroyed 
by  the  Emperor  Commodus — may  be  briefly  mentioned  Com- 
mentaries upon  the  whole  or  parts  of  their  Pentateuch,  by 
Zadaka  b.  Manga  b.  Zadaka;2   further,  by  Maddib  Eddin 
Jussuf  b.  Abi  Said  b.  Khalef ;  by  Ghazal  Ibn  Abu-1-Surur 
Al-Safawi  Al-Ghazzi 3  (A.H.  1167-8,  A.D.  1753-4,  Brit.  Mus.), 
&c.     Theological  works  chiefly  in  Arabic,  mixed  with  Sama- 


1  Compare  the  well-known  dictum 
of  Omar  on  the  Alexandrian  Library 
(Gibbon,  ch.  51). 

^  (13th  century, 


Bodl.). 


Under  the 


ON  THE  SAMAKITAN  PENTATEUCH.  435 

ritanisms,  by  Abul  Hassan  of  Tyre,  On  the  religious  Manners 
and  Customs  of  the  Samaritans  and  the  World  to  come ;  by 
Mowaffek  Ecldin  Zadaka  el  Israili,  A  Compendium  of  Reli- 
gion, on  the  Nature  of  the  Divine  Being,  on  Man,  on  the 
Worship  of  God  ;  by  Amin  Eddin  Abu'l  Baracat,  On  the  Ten 
Commandments ;  by  Abu'l  Hassan  Ibn  El  Markum  Gronajem 
ben  Abulfaraj'  Ibn  Chatar,  On  Penance ;  by  Muhaddib  Eddin 
Jussuf  Ibn  Salamah  Ibn  Jussuf  Al  Askari,  An  Exposition  of 
the  Mosaic  Laws,  &c.  &c.  Some  grammatical  works  may  be 
further  mentioned,  by  Abu  Ishak  Ibrahim,  On  the  Hebrew 
Language;  by  Abu  Said,  On  reading  the  Hebrew  Text 
Vjji«J\  u^j*-  ^h*8  grammar  begins  in  the  following  charac- 
teristic manner : — 

"  Thus  said  the  Sheikh,  rich  in  good  works  and  knowledge, 
the  model,  the  abstemious,  the  well-guided  Abu  Said,  to 
whom  God  be  merciful  and  compassionate. 

"  Praise  be  unto  God  for  His  help,  and  I  ask  for  His 
guidance  towards  a  clear  exposition.  I  have  resolved  to  lay 
down  a  few  rules  for  the  proper  manner  of  reading  the  Holy 
Writ,  on  account  of  the  difference  which  I  found,  with  respect 
to  it,  among  our  co-religionists — whom  may  God  make 
numerous  and  inspire  to  obedience  unto  Him  ! — and  in  such 
a  manner  that  I  shall  bring  proofs  for  my  assertions,  from 
which  the  wise  could  in  no  way  differ.  But  God  knows 
best! 

"  Eule  1 :  With  all  their  discrepancies  about  dogmas  or 
religious  views,  yet  all  the  confessors  of  the  Hebrew  religion 
agree  in  this,  that  the  n  of  the  first  pers.  (sing,  perf.)  is 
always  pronounced  with  Kasra,  and  that  a  >  follows  it,  pro- 
vided it  has  no  suffix.  It  is  the  same,  when  the  suffix  of  the 
plural  D  is  added  to  it,  according  to  the  unanimous  tes- 
timony of  the  MSS.,  &c." 

The  treatise  concludes,  at  the  end  of  the  12th  Canon  or 
Kule  :— 

"Often  also  the  perfect  is  used  in  the  form  of  the  im- 
perative. Thus  it  is  reported  of  a  man  of  the  best  reputation, 
that  he  had  used  the  form  of  the  imperative  in  the  passage 
(Ex.  iii.  13),  1D10  HD  "6  111DN1  — '  And  they  shall  say  to 

2  F  2 


436  ON  THE  SAMARITAN  PENTATEUCH. 

me,  What  is  his  name?'  He  who  reported  this  to  me,  is  a 
man  of  very  high  standing,  against  whose  truthfulness  nothing 
can  be  brought  forward.  But  God  knows  best  ! 

"  There  are  now  a  few  more  words  to  be  treated,  of  which, 
however,  we  will  treat  viva  voce.  And  blessed  be  His  name 
for  evermore." 

5.  Their  Liturgical  literature  is  more  extensive,  and  not 
without  a  certain  poetical  value.  It  consists  chiefly  of 
hymns  (Defter.  Durran)  and  prayers  for  Sabbath  and  Feast- 
days,  and  of  occasional  prayers  at  nuptials,  circumcisions, 
burials,  and  the  like.  We  subjoin  a  few  specimens  from 
MSS.  in  the  British  Museum,  transcribed  into  Hebrew 
characters. 

The  following  is  part  of  a  Litany  for  the  dead  :  — 


"pi  •  TDrra  .  n^n     •  mrr  . 
prrcn  •  omiN  •  p^™n 
"iDi  •  TO  &  . 

Lord  Jehovah,  Elohim,  for  Thy  mercy,  and  for  Thine  own  sake,  and  for 
Thy  name,  and  for  Thy  glory,  and  for  the  sake  of  our  Lords  Abraham,  and 
Isaac,  and  Jacob,  and  our  Lords  Moses  and  Aaron,  and  Eleazar,  and 
Ithamar,  and  Pinehas,  and  Joshua,  and  Caleb,  and  the  Holy  Angels,  and 
the  seventy  Elders,  and  the  holy  mountain  of  Gerizim,  Beth  El.  If  Thou 
acceptest  [DV«W1]  this  prayer  [N^pD]  =  reading],  may  there  go  forth  from 
before  Thy  holy  countenance  a  gift  sent  to  protect  the  spirit  of  Thy  ser- 
vant, ^3  ^j\  ^^J  [N.  the  son  of  N.],  of  the  sons  of  [  -  ],  daughter 
[  -  ]  from  the  sons  of  [  -  ].  0  Lord  Jehovah,  in  Thy  mercy  have 
compassion  on  him  (j(  [or]  have  compassion  on  her),  and  rest  his  (her) 
soul  in  the  garden  of  Eden  ;  and  forgive  him  (  \  [or]  her),  and  all  the 

congregation  of  Israel  who  flock  to  Mount   Gerizim  Beth  El.     Amen. 
Through  Moses  the  trusty.     Amen,  Amen,  Amen. 

The  next  is  part  of  a  hymn  (see  Kirchheim's  Carm& 
Shomron,  emendations  on  Gesenius,  Carm.  Sam.  iii.)  :  — 

1. 

JT^     There  is  no  God  but  one, 
DT6N     The  everlasting  God, 
Who  liveth  for  ever  ; 
God  above  all  powers, 
And  who  thus  remaineth  for  ever, 


ON  THE  SAMARITAN  PENTATEUCH.       •         437 
2. 

HI*)  "J^rO  In  Thy  great  power  shall  we  trust, 

pD  IPT  /INI  For  Thou  art  our  Lord  ; 

mn^Kl  In  Thy  Godhead  ;  for  Thou  hast  conducted 

p  HD^J?  The  world  from  beginning. 


3. 

ITDD  inTOD     Thy  power  was  hidden, 

And  Thy  glory  and  mercy. 

Revealed  are  both  the  things  that  are  revealed, 

and  those  that  are  unrevealed 
Before  the  reign  of  Thy  Godhead,  &c.  &c. 

IV.  We  shall  only  briefly  touch  here,  in  conclusion,  upon 
the  strangely  contradictory  rabbinical  laws  framed  for  the 
regulation  of  the  intercourse  between  the  two  rival  nation- 
alities of  Jews  and  Samaritans  in  religious  and  ritual  matters  ; 
discrepancies  due  partly  to  the  ever-shifting  phases  of  their 
mutual  relations,  partly  to  the  modifications  brought  about 
in  the  Samaritan  creed,  and  partly  to  the  now  less  now 
greater  acquiescence  of  the  Jews  in  the  religious  state  of  the 
Samaritans.  Thus  we  find  the  older  Talmudical  authorities 
disputing  whether  the  Cuthim  (Samaritans)  are  to  be  con- 
sidered as  "Beal  Converts"  JiftN  *>")•%  or  only  converts 
through  fear  —  "  Lion  Converts  "  /  JTVHN  "nVI  —  in  allusion  to 
the  incident  related  in  2  K.  xvii.  25  (BdbaK.  38  ;  Kidush.  75, 
&c.).  One  Eabbi  holds  >i:o  VYD,  "A  Samaritan  is  to  be 
considered  as  a  heathen;"  while  E.  Simon  b.  Gamaliel  —  the 
same  whose  opinion  on  the  Sam.  Pent,  we  had  occasion  to 
quote  before  —  pronounces  that  they  are  "to  be  treated  in 
every  respect  like  Israelites  "  (Dem.  Jer.  ix.  2  ;  Ketub.  11, 
&c.).  It  would  appear  that  notwithstanding  their  rejection 
of  all  but  the  Pentateuch,  they  had  adopted  many  traditional 
religious  practices  from  the  Jews  —  principally  such  as  were 
derived  direct  from  the  Books  of  Moses.  It  was  acknow- 
ledged that  they  kept  these  ordinances  with  even  greater 
rigour  than  those  from  whom  they  adopted  them.  The 
utmost  confidence  Was  therefore  placed  in  them  for  their 
ritually  slaughtering  animals,  even  fowls  (Chul  4  a)  ;  their 


438  '       ON  THE  SAMARITAN  PENTATEUCH. 

wells  are  pronounced  to  be  conformed  to  all  the  conditions- 
prescribed  by  the  Mishnah  (Toseph.  Mikw.  6 ;  comp.  Mikw. 
8,  1).  See,  however  Abodah  Zarali  (Jer.  v.  4).  Their  un- 
leavened bread  for  the  Passover  is  commended  (Git.  10; 
ChuL  4) ;  their  cheese  (Mas.  Cuth.  2)  ;  and  even  their  whole 
food  is  allowed  to  the  Jews  (Ab.  Zar.  Jer.  v.  4).  Compare 
John  iv.  8,  where  the  disciples  are  reported  to  have  gone 
into  the  city  of  Samaria  to  buy  food.  Their  testimony  was 
valued  in  that  most  stringent  matter  of  the  letter  of  divorce 
(Mas.  Cuth.  ii.).  They  were  admitted  to  the  office  of  circum- 
cising Jewish  boys  (Mas.  Cuth.  i.) — against  K.  Jehudah,  who 
asserts  that  they  circumcise  "  in  the  name  of  Mount  Gerizim" 
(Abodah  Zarah,  43).  The  criminal  law  makes  no  difference 
whatever  between  them  and  the  Jews  (Mas.  Cuth.  2 ;  MaJcJc. 
8)  ;  and  a  Samaritan  who  strictly  adheres  to  his  own  special 
creed  is  honoured  with  the  title  of  a  Cuthi-Chaber  (Gittin, 
10 1)  ;  Middah,  33  fr).  By  degrees,  however,  inhibitions  began 
to  be  laid  upon  the  use  of  their  wine,  vinegar,  bread  (Mas.. 
Cuth.  2 ;  Toseph.  77,  5),  &c.  This  intermediate  stage  of 
uncertain  and  inconsistent  treatment,  which  must  have  lasted 
for  nearly  two  centuries,  is  best  characterized  by  the  small 
rabbinical  treatise  quoted  above — Massecheth  Cuthim  (2nd 
cent.  A.D.) — first  edited  by  Kirchheim  (/TOtDp  'DD  yittf 
/Ot?ttf')"V)  Francf.  1851, — the  beginning  of  which  reads:— 
'•  The  ways  (treatment)  of  the  Cuthim  (Samaritans),  some- 
times like  Goyim  (heathens)  sometimes  like  Israel."  No  less 
striking  is  its  conclusion : 

"  And  why  are  the  Cuthim  not  permitted  to  come  into  the 
^n  midst  of  the  Jews?  Because  they  have  mixed  with  the 
priests  of  the  heights "  (idolaters).  ~*R.  Ismael  says :  "  They 
were  at  first  pious  converts  (p-f^  nVl  =  real  Israelites),  and 
why  is  the  intercourse  with  them  prohibited?  Because  of 
their  illegally  begotten  children,1  and  because  they  do  not 
fulfil  the  duties  of  Q^  (marrying  the  deceased  brother's 
wife);";- a  law  which  they  understand,  as  we  saw  above,  to 
apply  to  the  betrothed  only. 

1  The  briefest  rendering  of  DHTDO  which  we  can  give — a  full  explanation 
of  the  term  would  exceed  our  limits. 


ON  THE  SAMAKITAN  PENTATEUCH. 


439 


"  At  what  period  are  they  to  be  received  (into  the  Com- 
munity) ?"  "  When  they  abjure  the  Mount  Gerizim,  recognise 
Jerusalem  (viz.,  its  superior  claims),  and  believe  in  the 
Resurrection."1 

We  hear  of  their  exclusion  by  K.  Meir  (Chul.  6)  in  the 
third  generation  of  the  Tanaim,  and  later  again  under 
E.  Abbuha,  the  Amora,  at  the  time  of  Diocletian ;  this  time 
the  exclusion  was  unconditional  and  final  (Jer.  Abodah  Zarali, 
5,  &c.).  Partaking  of  their  bread2  was  considered  a  trans- 
gression, to  be  punished  like  eating  the  flesh  of  swine  (Zeb.  8, 
6).  The  intensity  of  their  mutual  hatred,  at  a  later  period, 
is  best  shown  by  dicta  like  that  in  M eg.  28,  6.  "  May  it 
never  happen  to  me  that  I  behold  a  Cuthi."  "  Whoever 
receives  a  Samaritan  hospitably  in  his  house,  deserves  that 
his  children  go  into  exile"  (Synh.  104,  1).  In  Matt.  x.  5 
Samaritans  and  Gentiles  are  already  mentioned  together; 
and  in  Luke  xvii.  18  the  Samaritan  is  called  "  a  stranger  " 
(a\\oyevr}<s).  The  reason  for  this  exclusion  is  variously  given. 
They  are  said  by  some  to  have  used  and  sold  the  wine  of 
heathens  for  sacrificial  purposes  (Jer.  ib.) ;  by  others  they 
were  charged  with  worshipping  the  dove  sacred  to  Venus ; 
an  imputation  over  the  correctness  of  which  hangs,  up  to 
this  moment,  a  certain  mysterious  doubt.  It  has,  at  all 
events,  never  been  brought  home  to  them,  that  they  really 
worshipped  this  image,  although  it  was  certainly  seen  with 
them,  even  by  recent  travellers. 


1  On  this  subject  the  Pent,  contains 
nothing  explicit  They  at  first  re- 
jected that  dogma,  but  adopted  it  at  a 
later  period,  perhaps  since  Do;itheus  ; 
comp.  the  sayings  of  Jehudda-hadassi 
and  Massudi,  that  one  of  the  two 


Samaritan  sects  believes  in  the  Kesur- 
rection ;  Epiphanius  Leontius,  Gre- 
gory the  Great,  testify  unanimously 
to  their  former  unbelief  in  this  article 
of  their  present  faith. 

2  J1D,  Lightfoot  "  bucella  "  (?). 


(    440     ) 


XVII. 
THE   BOOK   OF  JASHEE.' 


A  VEKY  instructive  work  might  be  written  on  the  "  Lost 
Books  of  the  Bible."  The  number  of  "  biblical "  writings 
that  perished  must  be  very  considerable  indeed.  Distinct 
traces  of  a  great  many  have  survived  in  our  Canon.  There 
is,  e.g.y  the  "Book  of  the  Wars  of  Jehovah,"  in  Numbers. 
In  Kings  the  "  Book  of  the  History  of  Solomon  "  is  referred 
to.  In  Chronicles  we  are  told  of  histories  by  Samuel,  Nathan 
the  Prophet,  Gad  the  Seer,  as  sources  for  the  life  of  David. 
In  the  same  work  there  are  references  for  the  further  history 
of  Solomon  to  the  "Prophecy  of  the  Silonite  Ahia,"  the 
"  Vision  of  the  Seer  Jedai  (Iddo)  on  Jeroboam."  The  Books 
of  the  Kings  adduce  (more  than  thirty  times)  certain  Annals 
both  of  the  kings  of  Judah  and  of  Israel  as  separate  works, 
speaking  of  them  moreover,  under  different  titles,  so  as  to 
further  favour  the  belief  of  the  existence  of  several  contem- 
porary historical  compilations.  Isajah  in  his  turn  is  men- 
tioned as  historiographer  in  Chronicles,  where,  further,  the 
writings  of  Shemajah,  of  Jehu,  of  Hosai,  &c.,  are  spoken  of. 
Of  all  these  productions,  great  or  small,  there  is  no  living 
trace  now.  They  seem,  indeed,  to  have  dropped  out  of  man's 
memory  at  a  very  early  period.  If  they  gave  rise  to  some 
moderate  discussions  it  was  principally  with  regard  to  the 
possible  identity  of  some  of  the  differently  named  works. 
There  is,  however,  one  book  mentioned  in  the  Bible  which 
people  seemed  and  seem  unable  ever  to  forget.  And  this 
is  the  so-called  "  Book  of  Jasher."  The  discussions  and 
vexations,  the  labours,  swindles,  and  never-ending  confusions 
to  which  this  book  has  given  rise,  from  the  days  of  the 


1  He-printed,  by  permission,  from  the  '  Pall  Mall  Gazette,'  August  7,  18C8. 


THE  BOOK  OF  JASHER.  441 

Talmud  to  the  most  recent  Times,  invest  it  with  an  import- 
ance which  possibly  would  not  have  been  allotted  to  it  had 
it  survived  complete  from  the  first  letter  to  the  last. 

To  begin  with,  the  name  "  Book  of  Jasher  "  (or  Jashar)  is, 
at  best,  a  misnomer.  Jashar  is  not,  as  far  as  we  know,  a 
proper  name.  But  if  it  were,  it  could  not  be  one  in  this 
special  connection,  from  grammatical  reasons.  It  is  a  simple 
adjective  (or  noun),  and  means  "upright,"  "just."  Twice 
this  work  is  distinctly  quoted  in  the  Bible  :  once  in  Joshua, 
on  the  occasion  of  the  battle  of  Gibeon,  and  once  in  Samuel, 
at  the  death  of  Jonathan.  On  the  first  occasion  it  is  quoted 
as  containing  Joshua's  song  of  victory ;  on  the  second  it  is 
referred  to  for  David's  dirge.  The  only  reasonable  inference 
to  be  drawn  from  both  passages  seems  this,  that  the  book 
alluded  to  was  a  collection  of  songs  composed  upon  certain 
events  important  in  national  history.  Whether  it  contained, 
also,  a  running  prose  narrative  which  illustrated  these  poetical 
portions  is  at  least  doubtful.  That  it  must  have  existed 
before  the  "  Eedaction  "  of  the  Book  of  Joshua  in  its  present 
form :  and,  further,  that  it  was  not  completed  before  the  time 
of  David,  seems  obvious.  Also  that  it  must  have  disappeared 
at  an  early  period.  But  it  is  very  strange  to  see  how,  people 
of  old  could  not  be  brought  to  believe  in  its  loss,  in  the  face 
of  the  perfectly  recognized  fact  that  innumerable  literary 
treasures  had  perished  before  and  during  the  captivity:  in 
the  face  even  of  the  narrow  escape  which  books  like  Ezekiel, 
Proverbs,  the  Song  of  Songs,  Ecclesiastes,  had  had  from 
being  placed  on  the  Index  by  the  first  compilers  of  the 
Canon.  The  Talmud,  in  answer  to  the  question,  "What 
is  the  Book  Hayyashar  ? "  contains  many  and  strange  con- 
jectures proffered  by  the  various  Doctors.  The  passages 
plainly  quoted  in  the  Bible  from  that  book  are  not  even 
taken  as  quotations :  but,  in  accordance  with  some  ingeniously 
found  similarities  or  allusions,  it  is  variously  pronounced  to 
mean  either  Genesis,  i.e.  the  book  of  "Abraham,  Isaac,  and 
Jacob — the  Upright  Ones,"  or  Deuteronomy,  or  Judges.  The 
Aramaic  version  (Targum)  translates  both  times,  vaguely, 
"  Book  of  the  Law,"  which  may  mean  the  Pentateuch  or  the 


442  THE  BOOK  OF  JASHER. 

entire  Old  Testament.  The  Vulgate,  following  the  first- 
named  Talmudical  opinion  (which  is  also  adopted  in  the 
"  Midrash  of  Genesis"  and  by  some  later  authorities),  has: 
the  upright  ones — "Liber  Justorum."  The  Syriac  Version 
is  at  variance  with  itself.  By  a  small  orthographical  con- 
trivance the  questionable  word  may  be  transformed,  both  in 
Hebrew  and  in  Syriac,  into  "  song,"  a  word  which  would  be 
particularly  fitting  to  the  probable  contents  of  the  book. 
And  so,  while  in  the  one  passage  the  Peshito  renders  Yashar 
by  Ashir,  it  substitutes  in  the  other  a  distinct  and  different 
term,  viz.  "  Hymns  of  Praise." 

Those  that  came  after,  the  scholiasts  and  the  commen- 
tators and  the  critics,  found  the  feast  ready  prepared.  They 
fell  upon  these  different  opinions,  appropriated  them,  modified 
them,  expounded  them,  played  upon  them.  Whether  the 
word  was  to  be  taken  in  the  singular  or  the  plural  sense, 
whether  it  meant  righteous  or  song,  when  and  by  whom  the 
Book  was  composed,  what  it  contained,  whether  it  was  an 
independent  work  at  all,  whether  it  was  intended  to  designate 
any,  and  which,  of  the  twenty-four  canonical  books — from 
Genesis  to  the  Minor  Prophets — these  questions  have  been 
ventilated  both  in  the  church  and  in  the  synagogue  with 
a  zeal  which  is  both  astounding  and  instructive. 

It  was  about  the  thirteenth  century  that  the  opinion 
began  to  get  whispered  abroad  among  Jewish  scholars  that 
the  whole  quarrel  was,  as  the  German  proverb  has  it,  about 
"  the  Emperor's  beard."  There  was  once  such  a  book,  some 
boldly  began  to  pronounce,  but  that  book  was  lost.  And  not 
long  after  this  there  appeared,  one  after  the  other,  no  less 
than  three  "Books  of  Jashar"  in  the  field.  Let  us  add  at 
once  that  only  one  of  these  seemed  to  lay  claim  (we  have 
failed  to  discover  that  it  really  did  so)  to  the  honour  of 
being  that  long  lost  work  itself.  Written  in  correct,  even 
in  elegant  Hebrew,  this  particular  book,  well  known  now, 
contained  the  story  from  the  creation  of  Adam  to  the  time  of 
the  Judges.  The  pre-Mosaic  period  fills  about  three-fourths 
of  it,  the  Mosaic  period  one-fifth,  and  a  few  pages  are  de- 
voted to  the  rest.  The  Song  of  Joshua — a  mere  mosaic  of 


THE  BOOK  OF  JASHEK.  443- 

biblical  passages — is  given  in  full ;  that  of  David,  however, 
is  not  found  there.  Legends,  as  well  as  dates  and  genea- 
logies, abound  in  it,  and  many  an  obscure  passage  iii  Scrip- 
ture is  explained  skilfully.  To  add  to  the  interest,  a  cleverly 
written  preface  recounted  how  the  book  was  found  by  one  of 
Titus's  generals,  ("  bishops,"  as  the  Judseo-German  version 
has  it),  in  the  possession  of  an  old  man  who  at  the  siege  of 
Jerusalem  had  hidden  himself  in  some  cunningly  contrived 
little  secret  edifice.  He  had  known,  he  told  the  general, 
that  the  destruction  was  impending,  and  he  had  endeavoured 
thus  to  place  himself  out  of  harm's  reach.  He  had  not  only 
taken  with  him  "brave"  eating  and  drinking,  but  books 
rare  and  precious  to  while  away  his  time.  Need  it  be  said 
that  the  general  instantly  took  a  fancy  to  that  old  man  and 
his  books — among  which  there  was  this  wondrous  document 
— and  brought  him  home  to  Sevilla,  where  he  built  him  a 
house,  "  which  is  to  be  seen  there  unto  this  day  "  ? 

The  book  became  immensely  popular,  and  it  richly  de- 
served its  popularity.  But,  to  the  grief  of  the  biblio- 
graphers, it  became  known,  apart  from  its  own  famous  title, 
under  two  other  names,  which,  again,  in  their  turn,  belonged 
to  distinct  other  works.  Worse  still,  when  it  was  first  trans- 
lated (into  Judseo-German),  a  fourth  title  was  given  to  it — 
with  a  special  purpose.  No  one,  however,  seems  to  have 
doubted  its  authenticity  :  that  is,  its  being  that  lost  treasure 
to  which  Joshua  and  Samuel  referred.  Until  modern  criti- 
cism looked  into  the  matter  and  found — shall  it  be  said  ? — 
that  it  was  a  clever  compilation  from  the  Talmud,  from 
various  Midrashim,  from  Pseudo-Josephus  (Josippon),  and 
many  popular  Jewish  and  Arabic  legends,  that  it  made  sus- 
picious mention  of  such  words  as  Abdallah,  Ali,  Mohammed. 
Abu  Jussuf,  Emir,  Khalif,  &c. :  all  of  which  things  put 
together  led  to  the  irresistible  conclusion  that  it  was  one  of 
the  latest  offshoots  (the  latest,  perhaps)  of  the  legendary 
development  known  as  Midrash,  that  it  arose  between  the 
twelfth  and  thirteenth  century  A.D.,  and  that  its  birthplace 
was  Spain. 

But  we  spoke  of  three  books  of  that  name.     Of  the  two- 


444  THE  BOOK  OF  JASHER. 

others  one  appeared  under  the  name  of  its  author,  Jacob, 
called  "Tham,"  of  Kameru,  who  died  in  1171,  and  who  was 
the  most  celebrated  of  the  three  grandsons  of  the  celebrated 
Eashi  (still  falsely  called  Jarchi).  This  contains  merely 
legal  matters,  or  rather  Talmudical  discussions,  and  could 
not,  one  would  have  thought,  have  given  rise  to  any  con- 
fusion. Yet  it  did.  A  third  book  which  appeared  about 
one  hundred  and  fifty  years  later,  under  the  same  title,  was, 
again,  hopelessly  mixed  up  with  it.  This  was  a  book  of 
ethics,  treating,  in  eighteen  chapters,  of  topics  for  pious 
reflections,  such  as  the  creation,  worship,  faith,  repentance, 
prayer,  abstinence,  the  world  to  come,  death,  &c.  And, 
intentionally  or  not,  it  was  ascribed  to  the  author  of  the 
foregoing  work:  upon  whom  was  then  also,  intentionally 
we  believe,  fathered  a  certain  connection  with  the  above 
legendary  book.  Here  again  modern  criticism  had  to  do  its 
work.  That  last-named  ethical  work  is,  there  can  no  longer 
be  any  doubt,  due  to  one  Zerachiah,  "  the  Greek,"  and  was 
composed  before  the  end  of  the  fourteenth  century. 

So  far  we  have  to  deal  with  Hebrew  works,  every  one  of 
which,  though  a  crux  to  the  bibliographer,  is  of  real  value 
and  use  for  the  student,  as  not  unworthily  representing  three 
great  branches  of  Hebrew  literature — the  legal,  the  ethical, 
and  the  legendary. 

Three  "  Books  of  Jasher,"  however,  were  not  deemed 
sufficient,  it  seems.  There  appeared  in  the  year  1751  a 
book  in  London  under  the  title  "  The  Book  of  Jasher,  with 
testimonies  and  notes  explanatory  of  the  text,  to  which  is 
[sic]  prefixed  various  readings.  Translated  into  English 
from  Hebrew  by  Alcuin  of  Britain,  who  went  a  pilgrimage 
into  the  Holy  Land."  A  note  by  Wickliffe  is  appended, 
wherein  he  states  that  he  approves  of  the  book,  but  does  not 
want  it  to  be  made  part  of  the  Canon.  In  the  introduction 
it  is  related  how  the  book  came  to  England.  "  I,  Alcuin  of 
Britain,"  it  begins,  "  was  minded  to  travel  into  the  Holy 
Land  and  into  the  Province  of  Persia  in  search  of  Holy 
things,  and  to  see  the  wonders  of  the  East,  and  I  took 
unto  me  two  companions,  who  learned  with  me  in  the 


THE  BOOK  OF  JASHEE.  445 

University  of  Oxford  all  those  languages  which  the 
people  of  the  East  speak,  namely,  Thomas  of  Malmesbury 
and  John  of  Huntingdon ;  and  though  we  went  as  pil- 
grim?, yet  we  took  with  us  silver  and  gold  and  riches. 
And  when  we  came  unto  Bristol  we  went  into  a  ship 
bound  for  Kome,  where  we  tarried  six  months,  and  learned 
more  perfectly  the  Persic  language."  It  goes  on  to  relate 
how  they  heard  of  the  existence  of  that  long-lost  book, 
and  how  they  came,  after  many  vicissitudes,  to  the  city 
of  Gazna,  and  then,  after  endless  troubles  and  bribings 
(always  with  "  wedges  of  gold  "),  they  contrived  to  see  the 
precious  manuscript,  which  was  in  width  "  2  foot  3  inches 
and  in  length  about  9  foot."  It  was  written  in  a  large, 
clear,  and  beautiful  hand.  When,  after  long  and  vain 
attempts  on  their  part,  the  final  permission  for  the  trans- 
lation was  given  to  them,  every  precaution  had  to  be  used. 
The  three  men  worked  at  it  for  one  year  and  six  months 
(some  sixty  pages),  and,  when  they  had  finished,  new  gold 
wedges  had  to  be  used  for  the  permission  of  taking  away 
their  copy.  At  last,  after  an  absence  of  seven  years,  they 
returned  by  way  of  Ispahan  and  Eome  to  Bristol  city. 
While  in  Eome,  Alcuin  says,  he  went  to  see  the  Pope,  who 
was  then  ninety-five  years  of  age,  and  he  showed  him  this 
book.  The  Pope  had  never  heard  of  it.  Then,  turning  to 
the  places  in  the  Bible  which  referred  to  it,  he  cried  out, 
u  I  have  lived  to  the  age  of  forgetfulness."  "  Some  years 
after  my  arrival,"  the  preface  concludes,  "I  related  this 
adventure  to  several,  and  showed  them  this  work,  who 
advised  me  not  to  suffer  a  copy  of  it  to  fall  into  the  hands 
of  the  stationer  lest  I  should  incur  the  displeasure  of  the 
purple.  Being  now  grown  old  and  infirm,  I  have  left  it 
among  other  papers  to  a  clergyman  in  Yorkshire." 

Nothing,  indeed,  could  exceed  the  utter  craziness  of  this 
production,  which,  with  its  variants,  its  marginal  glosses,  its 
references  to  and  extracts  from,  works  of  "  Hur  "  (who  again 
quotes  the  "Book  of  Aron"),  Phinehas,  Othniel,  Jazer, 
Jezer,  Zadok,  Tobias,  and  the  rest  (much  in  the  style  of  the 


446  THE  BOOK  OF  JASHER. 

maddest  Gnostic  tracts),  imposed  not  merely  upon  the 
populace,  but  upon  divines  and  men  of  learning.  In  vain 
did  the  Monthly  Eeview  of  December  of  that  same  year, 
]  751,  expose  it.  "  The  whole,"  it  concludes  its  criticism, 
"  is  so  full  of  blunders,  inconsistencies,  and  absurdities  that 
we  think  it  beneath  further  notice."  In  vain  was  it  urged 
that  Gazna  was  not  in  Persia;  that  Alcuin  never  left 
Europe;  that  in  the  ninth  century  people  did  not  write 
modern  English;  that  the  Authorised  Version,  from  which 
that  book  was  to  a  great  extent  almost  literally  taken,  did 
not  exist  at  the  time  of  Alcuin ;  that  stationers  were  not 
known  at  that  time  any  more  than  the  "  paper  on  which  it 
is  wrote  "  could  have  had  any  existence  300  years  before  its 
invention ;  that  the  University  of  Oxford,  where  Alcuin  had 
learnt  "all  the  Eastern  languages,"  was  not  founded  till 
eighty-two  years  after  his  death.  In  vain,  also,  was  it 
proved  by  irrefutable  evidence  that  that  whole  trash  was 
due  to  one  Hive,  a  half-insane  London  printer,  who  in  1733 
had  published  an  "  oration  "  in  which  he  proved  "  the  plu- 
rality of  worlds,"  and  further  asserted  that  earth  was  hell, 
that  the  souls  of  men  were  apostate  angels,  and  that  the  fire 
on  the  day  of  judgment  would  be  immaterial ;  who  after 
this  became  a  public  preacher  on  "infidelity,"  and  hired 
Carpenters'  Hall  for  his  orations,  chiefly  taken  from  Tindal. 
Nay,  even  the  confession  of  his  assistant  in  the  composition 
of  this  work,  viz.  that  "they  had  laboured  at  it  in  dead 
secret,"  that  "the  forms  were  worked  off  in  the  night  time 
in  a  private  press-room  after  the  men  of  the  printing-house 
had  left  their  work,"  did  not  prevail.  People  believed  in 
the  book,  and  here  is  a  specimen  of  it : — 

"1.  "Whilst  it  was  the  beginning,  darkness  overspread  the 
face  of  nature.  2.  And  the  aether  moved :  upon  the  surface 
of  the  chaos.  3.  And  it  came  to  pass  that  a  great  light 
shone  forth  from  the  firmament :  and  enlightened  the  abyss. 
4.  And  the  abyss  fled  before  the  face  of  light,  and  divided 
between  the  light  and  the  darkness.  5.  So  that  the  face  of 
nature  was  formed  :  a  second  time.  ,  .13.  And  it  came  to 


THE  BOOK  OF  JASHER.  447 

pass  in   the  process  of  time   that   the   man  conceived  and 
brought  forth  Cain,"  &c.  &c. 

Marginal  explanations  furnished  the  original  "  Hebrew  "- 
in  English,  of  course.     Thus  for  "  beginning "  the  Hebrew 
had,  it  was  stated,  "  the  prime ; "  for  nature,  "  the  desert ; " 
for   aether,    the    "  atoms ; "    for   chaos,   u  confused    mass  of 
matter." 

Well,  this  "  chaos,"  or  confused  mass  of  matter,  written 
according  to  Alcuin-Ilive  ly  Jasher,  the  son  of  Caleb,  was 
reprinted  at  Bristol  (apparently  in  two  editions)  in  1829. 
Nearly  one  thousand  of  the  most  '•  literary  characters,"  pre- 
lates, dignitaries,  public  establishments,  the  prospectus  to  the 
second  edition  stated,  had  subscribed  to  it;  and  while  un- 
practical Hive  had  sold  his  "  Editio  Princeps  "  for  the  modest 
sum  of  half-a-crown,  his  "  Bristol  pirate  "  fixed  the  price  at 
ten  shillings,  from  which  it  rose  to  a  sovereign.  The  altera- 
tions made  in  the  new  issue — the  editor  of  which,  of  course, 
had  never  heard  of  the  first  publication,  though  he  copied  it 
almost  literally  from  beginning  to  end — were  very  charac- 
teristic. The  translation  here  was  stated  to  have  been  made 
in  Anglo-Saxon,  and  to  crown  the  unexampled  impudence, 
reference  is  made  to  Alcuin's  published  works,  in  which  he 
himself  is  stated  to  have  spoken  of  this  translation,  and 
where,  of  course,  not  one  syllable  regarding  it  is  to  be  found. 
This,  no  doubt,  is  the  work  mentioned  by  some  of  the  Times 
recent  correspondents. 

The  list  is  not  exhausted  yet.  .  There  is  still  the  "  Book 
of  Jasher"  by  Dr.  Donaldson.  Of  this  we  would  speak, — 
though,  in  common  with  most  critics,  we  are  utterly  at 
variance  with  the  ingenious  theories  propounded  in  this 
book, — with  very  high  respect.  The  attempt  has  been  made 
here,  as  our  readers  probably  are  aware,  to  reconstruct  Jashar 
— mosaically,  as  it  were — out  of  various  portions  and  passages 
in  the  Bible.  The  book,  that  investigator  held,  was  compiled 
during  the  reign  of  David,  as  "  the  first  offspring  of  the  pro- 
phetic schools,"  and  contained,  as  it  were,  the  marrow  of  the 
Old  Testament.  But  on  this  we  shall  not  enlarge. 


448  THE  BOOK  OF  JASHER. 

Thus  much  of  the  "Book  of  Jasher."  In  the  face  of  the 
unceasing  flow  of  ingenious  correspondence  regarding  this 
book,  which  an  accident  has  again  brought  into  prominence, 
we  have  deemed  it  our  duty  to  enter  somewhat  fully  into  the 
strange  vicissitudes  of  its  story. 

In  the  face  of  this  same  correspondence  also  we  thought  it 
better  patiently  to  abide  our  time  till  now. 


(    449    ) 


XVIII. 
EARLY  ARABIC  POETRY.1 


THE  traces  which  have  come  down  to  our  times  of  the  lite- 
rature that  Arabia  possessed  during  the  long  period  prece- 
ding the  Mohammedan  era  are  of  the  scantiest  description. 
Yet,  as  far  back  as  the  golden  epoch  of  Hebrew  literature, 
fully  sixteen  hundred  years  before  the  birth  of  the  Prophet, 
Arab  culture  must  have  stood  in  very  high  renown.  Solo- 
mon's own  transcendent  wisdom  is  likened  unto  the  wisdom 
of  the  Arabs  ;  the  Queen  of  Sheba  is  an  Arab  Queen,  and 
Job's  wise  friends  are  Arabs.  But  Islam  so  completely 
blotted  out  all  that  went  before  it,  that  the  past  with  all  its 
mental  labour  became  in  reality  a  "  time  of  ignorance  "  for 
succeeding  generations.  Nothing  palpable,  nothing  reliable 
at  least,  has  survived  that  could  be  ascribed  to  a  period 
anterior  to  the  fifth  century  of  our  own  era  ;  save  perhaps  a 
few  Himyaritic  votive  tablets,  which  there  are  few  to  read  and 
fewer  still  to  understand.  Nor  are  the  surviving  relics  in  the 
real  "  Ishmaelite  "  Arabic  like  those  of  Assyria  and  Babylon, 
in  which  are  found  treatises  on  history,  astronomy,  theology, 
grammar,  poetry,  and  all  the  arts  and  sciences  that  refined 
man  is  heir  to.  All  we  have  recovered,  and  are  still  re- 
covering, consists  of  an  infinitesimal  number  of  complete 
poems,  and  a  comparatively  larger  number  of  poetical  chips, 
imbedded  as  quotations  in  the  various  writings  of  the  en- 
lightened ages  that  followed. 

Small  as  is  their  whole  sum  and  substance,  they  yet  prove 
unmistakably  that,  brilliant  as  were  the  periods  of  Arabic 


1  Beitrdge  zur  Kenntniss  der  Poesie 
der  alien  Ardber.    Von  Theodor  Nol- 


rinted  by  permission  from  the  '  Satur- 
y  Review,'  June  17,  1865. 


pn 
du 


deke.      Hannover :    Bumpier.     Ee- 

2  G 


450  EAELY  ARABIC  POETRY. 

literature  known  to  us,  none  were  so  brilliant  as  that  of 
which  we  have  so  little  knowledge — that  immediately  pre- 
ceding Mohammed.  Poetry  at  that  time  formed  the  chief 
glory  of  an  Arab's  life.  If  a  poet  arose  in  the  midst  of  a 
tribe,  the  other  tribes  sent  embassies  of  congratulation.  There 
was  feasting  and  dancing,  exactly  as  on  those  two  other 
proudest  occasions  of  the  birth  of  a  young  prince  or  the  foal- 
ing of  a  noble  mare.  Mecca,  and  afterwards  Okhad,  were  the 
Arabic  Olympias  where  the  poets  held  their  contests  under 
the  eyes  of  all  the  nation.  How  it  was  that  poetry  declined 
at  the  very  moment  when  it  ought  to  have  lifted  up  its  head 
more  proudly  than  ever — that  an  ancient,  vast,  and  glorious 
literature  was  irredeemably  lost  among  a  people  not  con- 
quered,  but  conquering,  not  dying,  but  renewing  their  strength 
like  the  eagle — we  cannot  here  explain.  It  is  essential, 
however,  to  bear  in  mind  that  all  ancient  Arabic  literature 
was  oral ;  that,  further,  it  was  all  in  verse  ;  and  that,  finally , 
the  prophet  did  not  like  poetry,  save  his  own.  And  this 
poetry  of  his,  except  in  a  few  instances  where  it  rises  to 
genuine  inspiration,  is  of  a  mediocre,  flat,  and  wearisome  kind. 
It  was  very  natural  that  Mohammed,  who  appealed  to  its 
superiority  as  a  sign  and  proof  of  his  divine  mission,  should 
hate  rivals  of  his  craft,  particularly  such  rivals  as  might 
excel  or  even  attack  him.  And  the  poets  were  wont  to  vex 
his  soul.  They  wrote  the  most  popular  and  heart-rending 
dirges  upon  those  who  had  fallen  fighting  against  him  at 
Badr.  They  were  occasionally  personal,  calling  him  a  hum- 
bug, a  madcap,  a  ridiculous  pretender.  They  laughed  at 
the  people  of  Medina  for  listening  to  a  mere  runaway 
foreigner.  There  was  particularly  one  old  Jewish  lady  who 
wrote  squibs  on  him  that  cut  him  to  the  quick.  "  By  Him 
in  whose  hands  my  soul  is,"  he  said  to  Caab  Ibn  Malek,. 
"these  satires  wound  me  more  than  arrows."  He  caused 
counter-satires  to  be  written,  but  they  failed.  Even  the 
"  sudden  visitation "  by  which  some  of  the  worst  offenders, 
men  and  women,  young  and  old,  were  found  struck  to  death, 
did  not  stop  the  "  press."  At  last  he  had  a  revelation  on  the 
subject.  "  Shall  I  declare  unto  you,"  he  asks  in  the  Surah 


EAELY  ARABIC  POETRY.  451 

called  "  the  Poets,''  «  upon  whom  the  devils  descend  ?  They 
descend  upon  every  lying  and  wicked  person.  .  .  .  most  of 
them  are  liars.  And  those  who  err  follow  the  steps  of  the 
Poets.  Seest  thou  not  how  they  rove  as  bereft  of  their  senses 
through  every  valley  ?  "  Poetry,  in  short,  as  the  sole  vehicle 
of  all  science,  all  tradition,  all  religion  of  the  old  regime, 
could  not  be  countenanced  by  the  prophet,  except  in  the  one 
instance  of  the  Book  that  had  lain  "hidden  under  the  Divine 
Throne  "  until  the  times  were  ripe. 

That  an  ancient  literature  was  wilfully  destroyed  by  fana- 
tical hands,  as  has  often  been  asserted,  we  do  not  believe ; 
for  nothing  can  be  destroyed  wilfully  but  what  exists  palpably. 
Nothing  being  written  down,  it  could  not  be  torn,  burnt, 
buried  out  of  sight.  But,  at  the  same  time,  tradition  is  of  a 
delicate  nature.  Unless  constantly  tended,  watched  over 
carefully,  and  incessantly  repeated,  it  is  apt  to  be  quickly 
forgotten.  Add  to  this  that  the  Arabs,  apart  from  the  in- 
terdict, had  better  things  to  do  for  a  time  than  to  repeat  the 
older  strains  of  love  and  revenge,  the  tent  and  desert  idyls, 
the  "  superstitions  "  or  the  stirring  deeds  of  old.  A  new  life 
more  brilliant,  more  dazzling,  than  any  they  had  ever  dreamed 
of  opened  to  them.  From  conquest  to  conquest,  from  glory 
to  glory,  they  went  onwards,  and  the  green  flag  waving  aloft, 
seized  upon  the  golden  lands  of  the  Orient.  But  when  to  the 
stormy  times  of  the  acquisition  under  the  Ommayads  the 
peaceful  times  of  possession  under  the  Abassides  succeeded — 
when  the  Caliphs  dwelt  in  fairy  palaces,  and  the  rough  and 
simple  sons  of  the  desert  had  exchanged  their  linen  tents  for 
cool  and  vast  marble  halls,  and  the  shock  of  battles  was 
followed  by  the  rich  and  lazy  ease  of  city  life — the  hearts  of 
both  rulers  and  ruled  began  to  yearn  for  the  sweet  voice  of 
the  minstrel.  Suddenly,  at  that  juncture,  traditions  till  then 
unknown  came  to  light,  which  albeit  oral,  were  considered  as 
genuine  as  the  Koran,  the  written  word  itself.  "  Teach  your 
children  the  art  of  poetry,"  the  prophet  had  said,  according 
to  the  Sunnah,  "  for  it  opens  the  understanding  and  maketh 
valour  hereditary."  However,  the  golden  time  of  poetry  was 
not  to  be  recalled  by  apocryphal  traditions  any  more  than 

2  G  2 


452  EARLY  ARABIC  POETRY. 

by  royal  edicts  and  court  patronage.  Besides,  the  old  Kasida, 
the  only  received  normal  form  of  poetry,  no  longer  befitted 
the  circumstances.  It  invariably  commenced  with  a  sorrow- 
ful remembrance  of  the  poet's  lady-love,  who  had  gone  none 
knew  whither,  and  the  very  traces  of  whose  tent,  but  yester- 
day gleaming  afar  in  the  wide  desert-sands,  had  been  effaced 
over-night.  It  then  drifted  off  into  the  praises  of  the  darling 
camel,  the  horse,  and  the  sword,  by  whose  aid  he  would  take 
sure  and  swift  revenge  on  all  his  enemies ;  and  into  similar 
strains,  little  suited  for  peaceful  dwellers  in  towns  and  ham- 
lets, in  gardens  and  by  rivers.  New  forms,  however,  were 
but  of  slow  growth.  Thus  both  rulers  and  ruled,  the  golden 
period  having  fled,  had  to  put  up  with  the  next  best  thing, 
the  silver  period — well  enough  in  its  way,  but  wanting  to  a 
great  extent  in  the  old  simplicity  of  conception,  the  genuine, 
honest  sentiment,  the  whole  tone  and  colour  of  the  grand 
desert-songs  of  yore.  With  it,  however,  we  have  no  concern 
here. 

The  golden  period,  then,  of  which  we  have  spoken,  and  in 
the  latter  days  of  which  Mohammed  lived  and  died,  stretches 
as  far  as  we  can  ascertain,  over  about  two  hundred  years. 
But  slight  are  the  changes  which  poetry  underwent  in  it  both 
as  regards  matter  and  form.  As  to  the  additional  remnants 
found,  and  here  published  for  the  first  time  from  MSS.  in 
Leyden,  Gotha,  and  Berlin,  by  Dr.  Noldeke,  the  greater 
part  of  them  belongs  to  the  latter,  the  most  important  to  the 
earlier,  section  of  that  period.  The  author,  so  far  from  merely 
publishing  and  editing  them,  has  re-imbedded  them  in  a  series 
of  most  instructive  and  readable  essays,  to  which,  as  a  kind 
of  introduction,  he  has  prefixed  an  interesting  chapter  on  the 
history  of  criticism  of  ancient  Arabic  poetry.  He  here  dwells 
chiefly  on  the  difficulties  met  even  by  the  most  experienced 
investigator  on  this  widely-remote  field,  where  everything 
looks  so  wondrous  strange.  Monotonous  as  is  the  life  of 
these  old  Bedouins,  so,  at  first,  appears  their  poetry.  The 
same  string  of  thought  recurs  often  in  the  self-same  order  in 
the  different  poets  ;  a  circumstance  which  has  misled  some 
critics  into  the  belief  of  their  being  utterly  wanting  in  in- 


EAKLY  AKABIC  POETRY.  453 

dividuality.     Another  drawback  is  that  woefully  piecemeal 
state  in  which  these  fragments  have  come  down  to  us ;  a 
single  popular  line  or  stanza  being  often  the  sole  remnant  of 
long  poems.     Irrespectively  of  this,  the  "  Faith  "  had  a  hand 
in  them,  remodelling  or  destroying  as  was  deemed  fit.   There 
were  also  some  who,  aided  by  the  boundless  wealth  of  the 
Arabic  language,   deliberately  changed  words  and   phrases 
because  they  preferred  certain  others  of  their  own  fancy. 
Thus  the  outraged  Durrumina  swears  at  people  who  quietly 
change  a  word,  the  finding  of  which  has  cost  him  sleepless 
nights,  for  another  which  is  commonplace  and  of  a  different 
quantity ;  and  he  strongly  recommends  writing  as  a  remedy 
for  this  evil.     A  further  cause  of  mischief  was  the  manifold 
number  of  versions  of  single  favourite  poems;  particularly 
when  the  schools  tried  to  put  them  to  rights  by  eliminating 
what  were  often  the  most  valuable  variations.    What  had  not 
the  imprimatur  of  the  savans  and  the  pious  was  cast  aside, 
and  no  more  heard  of.     We  may  add  that  forgeries  in  the 
manner  of  Ossian  were  not  unusual.     Wholesale  fatherings 
upon  primeval  authorities  of  productions  good,  bad,  and  worse 
are  recorded.    The  wise  men  of  Kufa,  the  place  of  the  Koran- 
scribes  which  also  gave  its  name  to  the  ancient  Kufic  char- 
acter, are  recorded  to  have  once  sat  in  full  conclave  to  decide 
upon  the  question  which  ancient  authority  should  be  declared 
the  author  of  a  poem  they  had  just  heard  from  a  Bedouin. 
All  these  difficulties,  combined  with  the  absence  of  vowels 
and  the  frequent  lack  or  incorrectness  of  the  diacritical  points 
— not  to  speak  of  the  crying  want  of  satisfactory  works  of 
reference — render  this  study  by  no  means  light  and  agreeable 
at  first  sight.     Yet  it  has  its  reward.     These  fragments  may 
be  broken,  defaced,  dimmed,  and  obscured  by  fanaticism, 
ignorance,  and  neglect,  but  out  of  them  there  arises  anew  all 
the  freshness,  bloom,   and  glory  of  desert-song,  as  out  of 
Homer's  epics  rise  the  glowing  springtime  of  humanity  and 
the  deep  blue  heavens  of  Hellas.     It  is  not  a  transcendental 
poetry,  rich   in   deep   and   thoughtful  legend  and  lore,  or 
glittering  in  the  many-coloured  prisms  of  fancy,  but  a  poetry 
the  chief  task  of  which  is  to  paint  life  and  nature  as  they 


451  EARLY  ARABIC  POETRY. 

really  are;  and  within  its  narrow  bounds  it  is  magnificent. 
It  is  chiefly  and  characteristically  full  of  manliness,  of  vigour, 
and  of  a  chivalrous  spirit,  doubly  striking  when  compared 
with  the  spirit  of  abjectness  and  slavery  found  in  some  other 
Asiatic  nations.  It  is  wild  and  vast  and  monotonous  as  the 
yellow  seas  of  its  desert  solitudes;  it  is  daring  and  noble, 
tender  and  true. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  chapters  of  the  book  is  formed 
by  Ibn  Kuteiba's  "  Introduction  to  the  Poets,"  hitherto  un- 
edited. This  Introduction  not  only  contains  many  hitherto 
unknown  "  chips,"  introduced  by  way  of  specimens,  together 
with  a  number  of  shrewd,  na'ive,  and  often  caustic  remarks  of 
his  own,  but  it  evinces  also  a  rough-and-ready  kind  of  eman- 
cipation on  the  part  of  the  Arabic  litterateur  from  prejudice 
and  authority,  and  a  quaint  soundness  of  aesthetical  judgment 
in  general.  He  cares  not  for  the  time  in  which  the  poet 
lived.  "  What  is  in  chronology  ? "  he  asks.  "  God  made 
every  ancient  writer  young  in  his  day,  and  every  great  man 
was,  by  His  decree,  once  a  very  small  man  and  a  mere 
beginner."  As  may  be  expected  from  this  spirit  of  impar- 
tiality, he  excludes  many  of  those  nonentities  who  somehow 
have  scrambled  into  a  shady  nook  of  Parnassus.  Everybody, 
he  argues,  has  written  a  poem  once  in  a  way.  Among  the 
"  motive  causes  "  which  speed  the  poet  he  enumerates  Drink- 
ing, Joy,  Wrath,  and  Love.  "  They  said  to  Kutayir — How 
do  you  manage  when  writing  poetry  becomes  difficult  to  you  ? 
He  said,  '  I  walk  through  the  deserted  habitations  and 
through  the  blooming  greenswards;  then  the  most  perfect 
songs  become  easy,  and  the  most  beautiful  ones  flow  natu- 
rally.' "  But  when  the  poet's  nature  has  been  grieved  by 
bad  food  or  sorrow,  everything  goes  wrong.  Alfarazdak  said, 
"  I  am,  according  to  the  judgment  of  the  Tamimites,  the 
best  poet  among  them ;  yet  sometimes  an  hour  comes  over 
me  when  I  could  rather  have  a  tooth  pulled  out  than  make 
a  verse." 

Another  of  Dr.  Xoldeke's  essays  treats  of  the  poems  of  the 
Jews  in  Arabia.  How  important  every  fragment  relating  to 
the  history  of  Judaism  in  Arabia — the  principal  albeit  sadly 


EAKLY  ARABIC  POETRY.  455 

troubled  source  of  Mohammedanism — must  be  to  the  historian 
of  Islam  need  not  be  urged.  Yet  there  is  not  much  to  be 
recovered.  Dr.  Noldeke  is  of  opinion,  and  we  entirely  agree 
with  him,  that  a  great  Jewish  immigration  into  Arabia 
cannot  well  have  taken  place  before  the  destruction  of  Jeru- 
salem by  Titus  or  Hadrian.  The  poetry  of  the  Arab  Jews, 
as  far  as  we  know  it,  exhibits,  strangely  enough,  scarcely  any 
special  national  traits.  Not  even  Biblical  or  Haggadistic 
reminiscences  are  to  be  met  with  in  their  stanzas.  They  are 
Arabic  pur  sang,  in  style,  tone,  and  contents.  They  are 
characterized  throughout,  according  to  Dr.  Noldeke,  by  a 
grand,  noble,  manly,  honest  spirit.  Assamaual  Suba,  Aarabi, 
Garid,  are  some  of  the  foremost  stars  of  song,  not  to  mention 
Kab  ben  Alasraf,  one  of  Mohammed's  bitterest  enemies. 

Of  all  the  remnants  of  primitive  Arabic  poetry  none  are 
more  striking,  more  everlastingly  beautiful  than  the  elegies. 
There  is  a  depth  and  a  simplicity  of  pathos  in  the  laments  of 
Mutaininim  on  the  death  of  his  brother  Malik,  who,  a  re- 
lapsed convert  from  Mohammedanism,  was  cruelly  slaugh- 
tered by  Chalid,  Abu  Bekr's  general,  not  often  met  with. 
Alchansa,  'the  most  celebrated  Arabic  poetess,  also  shines 
exclusively  in  elegiac  poetry.  Her  laments  over  her  two 
murdered  brothers,  Muawya  and  Sachr,  are  most  pathetic, 
tender  and  passionate ;  yet  no  translation  could  ever  convey 
the  fulness  of  their  beauty ;  to  be  appreciated  they  must  be 
read  in  the  majestic,  soft  sonorous  words  of  the  original. 

Not  the  least  curious  chapter  in  the  book  is  the  last,  on 
the  "  Bedouins  cheating  their  creditors,"  containing  a  number 
of  mocking-verses  on  usurers,  overreached  in  cunning  by  the 
simple  dwellers  of  the  desert,  It  seems  as  if  all  the  latent 
fun  of  these  healthily  constituted  Arab  minds  had  burst  out 
here.  There  is  a  recklessness  of  humour,  and  an  utter 
absence  of  "Philistine"  notions  of  honesty — an  absence 
which  Dr.  Noldeke  endeavours  to  excuse  as  best  he  can — 
about  them,  that  administer  many  a  shock  to  our  received 
idea  of  the  permanent  gravity  and  piety  of  these  ancients, 
but  are  most  essential  to  the  general  truthfulness  and 
rounding-off  of  the  picture. 


456  EAELY  AEABIC  POETKY. 

So  much  for  the  expression  given,  by  the  earliest  poets 
known  to  us  among  the  ancient  Arabs,  to  the  comedy  and 
tragedy  of  their  lives.  The  strains  collected  together  here 
are  but  scanty,  faint,  and  broken ;  but  we  recognise  in  them 
the  full  accents  of  human  joy  and  sorrow,  of  love  and  of 
valour,  of  passion  and  of  truth.  Our  best  thanks  are  clue  to 
Dr.  Noldeke  for  having  undertaken  this  by  no  means  easy 
task,  and  for  having  performed  it  with  his  wonted  erudition 
and  industry. 


(    457    ) 


XIX. 

ARABIC    POETRY   IN   SPAIN   AND 
SICILY.1 


PERHAPS  the  most  interesting  period  of  Arabic  history  and 
literature,  and  the  one  which  has  most  directly  influenced 
European  culture,  belongs  to  the  time  of  the  Moorish  pos- 
session of  Spain.  It  is  well  known  how  the  almost  demo- 
niacal power  which,  in  scarcely  two  generations  after 
Mohammed,  had  carried  his  flag  from  the  Chinese  mountains 
to  the  Atlantic  began  to  collapse  shortly  after  these  gigantic 
conquests  were  achieved.  The  Empire  of  the  Chalifs,  more 
colossal  than  either  the  Roman  Empire  before  or  the  Mon- 
golian after  it,  broke  down  almost  simultaneously  at  its  two 
extreme  ends.  While  in  the  far-away  East,  in  the  hollows 
of  Paropamisus,  the  primeval  banner  of  Iran  was  lifted  up 
anew  by  the  Tahirites,  the  Sheikhs  of  "  Andalus,"  as  all  Spain 
was  called,  refused  to  be  ruled  any  longer  by  the  arbitrary 
governors  sent  to  them  from  distant  Arabia.  At  the  same 
time,  a  change  of  dynasty  took  place  in  the  heart  of  the 
Empire  —  a  change  sealed  by  one  of  the  most  dastardly 
massacres  known  even  in  Eastern  history.  Abu'l  Abbas,  the 
first  of  the  new  Abbasside  rulers,  not  satisfied  with  having 
completely  superseded  the  Omayyads,  resolved  to  stamp 
them  out  even  to  their  last  trace.  Abdallah,  the  Governor 
of  Damascus,  received  the  order  to  invite  all  the  scions  of 
the  unhappy  house  of  Omayya  to  a  feast  of  reconciliation 


1  "  Poesie  und  Kunst  der  Arabor  in  I  printed  by  permission  from  the  'Satur- 
Spanien  und    Sicilien."     Von  A.  F.  I  day  Review,'  November  17,  18GG. 
von    Schack.      Berlin :    Hertz.     Re-  j 


458  ARABIC  POETRY  IN  SPAIN  AND  SICILY. 

and  goodwill.  At  that  feast,  the  recital  of  an  appropriate 
poem  having  given  the  signal,  they  were  all,  about  ninety  in 
number,  suddenly  fallen  upon  and  murdered.  Carpets  were 
drawn  over  the  dying  victims,  and  louder  waxed  the  revel 
while  the  hall  swam  in  their  blood.  Nor  did  this  hecatomb 
satisfy  the  enthusiasts  of  the  new  era.  The  royal  tombs  were 
opened,  and  their  ashes  were  given  to  the  winds. 

But  the  star  of  the  Omayyads  that  had  gone  down  in  the 
East  shone  forth  anew  in  the  West.  Abdarrahrnan,  a  grand- 
son of  Hisham,  had  escaped.  Of  his  many  and  strange 
adventures  during  his  flight  the  Arab  legend  sings  and  says. 
At  last,  in  the  depths  of  the  African  desert,  the  Andalusian 
Sheikhs  discovered  him,  and  offered  him  the  crown  of  Spain. 
In  August,  755,  he  crossed  the  Straits,  and  was  received  in 
triumph  by  his  new  lieges.  What  internal  and  external  foes 
there  were,  he  swiftly  subdued,  and  when  Koland  had  broken 
his  good  sword  Durenda  at  Koncevel,  and  the  forlorn  wails  of 
his  horn  had  died  away,  the  last  danger  that  threatened  the 
independence  of  the  realm  seemed  passed  for  ever.  Soon 
the  new  Empire  began  to  outshine  all  contemporary  Europe 
in  power  and  glory.  Cordova,  the  city  chosen  as  the  capital 
by  Abdarrahman,  became  the  crown  of  Europe.  The  fame 
of  its  greatness  and  splendour,  its  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  marble  houses,  its  three  thousand  mosques,  its  twenty- 
eight  suburbs,  all  thronged  with  the  richest  and  happiest 
population  under  the  sun,  spread  to  the  end  of  the  world — 
even  to  the  convent  of  Gandersheim  in  Saxony,  to  Hroswitha 
the  poetess.  In  the  midst  of  her  lay  of  the  martyrdom  of 
St.  Pelagius,  she  bursts  forth  into  a  rhapsody  about  this 
heathen  city,  "  the  brightest  splendour  of  the  world." 

If  the  Abbassides  made  Bagdad  "  the  Athens  of  the  East," 
the  Omayyads  made  Cordova  the  centre  of  all  the  science 
and  art  of  the  West.  Apart  from  the  capital,  schools  and 
academies  arose  through  the  length  and  the  breadth  of  the 
Peninsula,  and  students  from  all  parts  of  the  world  came  to 
sit  at  the  feet  of  the  great  masters  of  philosophy,  mathe- 
matics, history,  medicine,  and  the  rest,  who  had  taken  up 
their  abode  in  that  blissful  land.  The  literature  that  sprang 


ARABIC  POETRY  IN  SPAIN  AND  SICILY.  -159 

up  from  such  an  almost  unprecedented  movement  of  mind  was 
enormous.  No  less  than  four  hundred  thousand  books,  mostly 
the  works  of  Spanish  authors,  are  recorded  to  have  formed 
the  library  of  Hakem,  one  of  the  later  Oniayyads,  when  it 
was  partly  destroyed  by  the  Berbers.  Six  months  were 
required  to  dispose  of  those  literary  treasures  that  had  not 
perished  in  the  assault.  Yet  while  all  branches  of  literature 
seem  to  have  been  cultivated  with  nearly  equal  assiduity  and 
genius,  the  centre  and  flower  of  all  was  poetry.  Abdarrah- 
inan  I.  himself  cultivated  the  art  of  song.  His  stanzas  to  the 
palm-tree — -which,  it  is  said,  he  was  the  first  to  introduce  into 
Europe,  "  the  land  of  his  exile  " — are  full  of  melody  and 
feeling.  In  the  course  of  centuries  the  guild  of  Moorish 
singers  grew  to  such  an  extent  that  the  mere  names  of  the 
most  renowned  among  them  would  fill  volumes.  It  had  in 
fact  come  to  this,  that  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest  in  the 
land  everybody  more  or  less  spoke  the  language  of  poetry. 
Al-Kazwini  mentions  some  place  where  every  peasant  pos- 
sessed the  talent  of  improvisation,  and  a  work  still  in 
existence  treats  specially  of  the  poetically  gifted  kings  and 
nobles  of  Andalusia.  The  women  in  the  harems,  the  officials 
at  their  desks,  the  chroniclers  in  the  bewildering  midst  of 
their  dates  and  names,  the  merchants  in  their  business 
correspondence — all  introduced  some  poetical  scrap  or  other 
in  their  spoken  or  written  speech,  if  they  did  not  indeed 
burst  out  into  an  independent  stanza  or  two.  Poetry  was  the 
all-pervading'  element,  without  which  there  seemed  to  be 
neither  light  nor  life  for  these  Moors.  Nor  was  it  to  be 
feared  that  the  literature  of  Spain  should  become  one-sided 
and  mannered,  or  its  language  corrupted  by  provincialisms,  as 
would  have  been  the  case  had  there  been  no  living  contact 
with  the  lands  of  the  East,  where  the  well  of  Arabic  flowed 
pure  and  undefiled.  Not  more  surely  do  the  literary  pro- 
ductions of  our  day  fly  from  one  corner  of  civilization  to  the 
other  than  did  those  works  of  learning  or  poetry  which  had 
seen  the  light  at  the  foot  of  the  Sierra  Morena  or  in  the 
valleys  of  the  Indian  Caucasus  reach  the  extreme  ends  of  the 


460  ARABIC  POETRY  IN  SPAIN  AND  SICILY. 

Islamic  dominions,  carried  thither  by  pious  pilgrims  or  well- 
equipped  caravans. 

We   have   endeavoured1   to   indicate   the   peculiar    cha- 
racter and  tone  of  the  poetry  before  Mohammed,  as  prin- 
cipally  represented  in   the   Kasida,   the   true  offspring    of 
the   desert.     Wild,    vague,    monotonous,   but    emphatically 
tender    and    passionate,    it    almost    invariably   commences 
with  a  plaint  for  the  lost  love  whose  tent  had  been  broken 
up    and    carried    away   during   the    night,    then    lovingly 
dwells  upon  the  revenge  to  be  taken  by  the    aid  of   the 
swiftest  of  camels,   most  valiant  of  swords,   and   furthest- 
reaching  rof  lances,  and  concludes  with  maxims  of  wisdom, 
expressive  of  the  fleeting  nature  of  life  which  comes  and 
goes  like  a  dwelling  in  the  desert,  while  the  skies  are  eternal 
and  the  stars  will  rise  and  set  for  ever  and  ever.      Well 
adapted  as  were  these  and  similar  strains  for  Beduins,  they 
began  to  assume  a  strange  incongruousness  when  these  same 
roving  shepherds  and  robbers  had  become  the  kings  of  the 
world,  dwelling  in  marble  palaces  which  lay  by  cool  streams, 
in  palm  and  orange  groves.      When,  therefore,   the  poets, 
living  in  the  midst  of  the  most  refined  and  luxurious  society 
of  the  Europe  of  the  day,  regardless  of  altered  circumstances, 
kept  on  singing  in  the  orthodox  strains  of   the  primitive 
Muallakat  or  Hamasa,  they  were  swiftly  reminded  of  the 
reality  of  things.     The  "  oft-wept  ruins  of  Chaula's  dwelling- 
place   in    the    yellow  sands,"  Ibn  Bessan,  a  writer  of  the 
period,  declares  to  have  become  rather  oppressive.    Nor  does 
he  believe  that  much  effect  will  be  given  to  the  too  frequent 
summons,  "  Here  let  us  halt,  0  friends,  that  we  may  weep." 
And  as  regards  the  question,  "Is  this  the  trace  of  Uinm 
Aufa  ?  "  nobody  really  could  imagine,  he  says,  that  the  busy 
winds  would  have  kept  the  traces  of  that  young  lady  intact 
for  these  many  centuries.     On  the  other  hand,  he  suggests 
that  there  may  be  some  poetical  fields  yet  unexplored  by  the 
ancients,  many  a  graceful  thought  and  pleasing  image  that 


1  See  page  452. 


ARABIC  POETRY  IN  SPAIN  AND  SICILY.  461 

belongs  to  present  springs  and  summers,  preferable  perhaps 
even  to  those  strains   which    seemed   universally  accepted 
chiefly   because   their   authors   were   long   dead  and   gone. 
And,  slowly  but  surely,  a  change  did  come  over  Andalusian 
poetry.     Piously  embodying  many  of  the  old  traditions  of 
Beduin  thoughts  and  similes,  there  was  yet  a  newness  of 
sentiment,   a   sweet  melodiousness,  and  an  almost  modern 
variety  pervading  it  which  had  been  utterly  unknown  to  the 
olden  days.     The  former  passionate  outbursts  in  praise  of 
nature,   of  love,   of  hatred,  of    arms,   of  animals,   become 
chastened  and   softened.      In  the   religious   strains  of  this 
period  there  is,  together  with   a   fervour  which   at  times 
verges  on  fanaticism,  also  perceptible  that  vague  undefinable 
yearning  after  the  Infinite  which  is  almost  a  trait  of  our  own 
day.     The  elegies  and  the  drinking-songs  of  those  times, 
their  love-strains  and  their  epigrams,  are  all  more  or  less 
characteristic  of  the  change.     They  sing,  as  was  never  sung 
in  Arabic  before,  of  nightly  boatings  by  torchlight,  of  the 
moon's  rays  trembling  on  the  waves,  of  sweet  meetings  in  the 
depths  of  rose-gardens,  of  the  Pleiades,  of  the  young  cup- 
bearer, of  the   King's  prowess   and  generosity,  of  Spain's 
glorious  cities  and  rivers,  mosques  and  villas,  statuettes  and 
vases,   and   of  the   far-away  burning   desert   whence  their 
fathers  came.     The  most  successful  of  these  poetical  com- 
positions are  generally  the  brief  songs  which  embody  the 
inspiration  of  the  moment.     The  longer  poems  lack,  to  our 
Western  minds,  that  unity  of  plan  and  execution  to  which 
classical  models  have  accustomed  us.     It  is  surprising  how 
the  Arabs — to  whom  and  to  the  Jews  we  owe  the  preser- 
vation of  the  great  bulk  of  antique  philosophy  and  science — 
should   not   have  profited   aught  from  Greek  and  Koman 
poets,  with   whose  works  they  must   surely  have  come  in 
contact.     Their  ignorance  of  them  is  indeed  surprising.     Ibn 
Chaldun,  that  most  learned   and   accomplished  litterateur, 
mentions,  in  support  of  his  assertion  that  the  Persians  and 
Greeks  too  had  great  poets,  the  fact  of  Aristotle  praising 
Homer,  whom   he  himself  only  knew  from  hearsay.     The 
great  philosopher,  Ibn  Eoshd's,  notion  of  Greek  literature 


462  ARABIC  POETRY  IN  SPAIN  AND  SICILY. 

may  be  gathered  from  the  fact  that  he  defines  Tragedy  as 
"the  art  of  approving,"  and  Comedy  as  "  the  art  of  blaming.'* 
And  here  we  are  led  to  a  highly  intricate  question  to 
which  attention  has  repeatedly  been  drawn  of  late — namely, 
the  influence  of  the  East  and  its  literature,  oral  or  otherwise, 
upon  medieval  European  literature.  Arthur  and  his  whole 
Bound  Table  have  been  traced  to  the  Persian  legends  of  the 
Court  of  Kai  Khosru  or  Nushirwan;  the  prototype  of  the 
Graal  is  found  in  the  cup  of  Djemjid ;  and  whether  or  not 
these  and  similar  strikingly  parallel  sagas  have  arisen  inde- 
pendently of  each  other,  there  can  be  no  doubt  about  many 
of  the  choicest  gems  of  European  folk-lore  being  originally 
Arabic.  Yet  nothing  can  be  more  absurd  than  the  notions 
which  contemporaneous  Europe  held  about  Moorish  Spain. 
Mohammed  is  to  Turpin  a  golden  idol,  guarded  by  demons, 
to  whom  human  sacrifices  are  offered  at  Cadiz.  The  old 
French  "  Koman  de  Mahomet  "  represents  him  as  a  baron 
surrounded  by  his  vassals,  possessing  the  choicest  forests, 
orchards,  rivers,  and  meadows  —  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
Mecca!  Wolfram  von  Eschenbach,  the  Minnesinger  of 
Wartburg  memory,  relates  how  one  Flegetanis,  who  knew 
the  coming  and  going  of  the  stars  and  their  dread  influence 
upon  man,  had  first  written  the  story  of  the  Graal  in  heathen 
(Arabic)  characters.  Gerbert,  afterwards  Pope  Sylvester  II., 
who  had  studied  in  Seville,  became  the  hero  of  a  mythic 
cycle.  He  had  learnt  from  the  Mohammedans  what  the 
flight  and  the  singing",  of  the  birds  betokened,  how  the  dead 
were  to  be  raised,  and  where  lay  the  hidden  treasures  of 
the  earth.  Very  differently,  however,  matters  stood  in  the 
country  itself,  where,  especially  towards  the  end  of  the 
Arabic  rule,  a  close  connection  between  Arabs  and  Christians 
and  their  respective  civilizations  arose — at  first  in  the  North 
— chiefly  through  the  influence  of  the  "  Mozarabic  "  Chris- 
tians and  the  Jews.  It  was  the  latter  principally  who,  under 
the  auspices  of  the  Arabic  dominion,  not  only  produced 
a  brilliant  philosophical,  astronomical,  grammatical,  and 
poetical  literature  of  their  own,  but  also  acted  as  the  chief 
mediators  between  the  antique  and  the  modern,  the  Eastern 


ARABIC  POETRY  IN  SPAIN  AND  SICILY. 

and  Western,  civilizations.  It  is,  above  all,  Toledo  which,  after 
its  capture  by  Alphonso  IV.,  became  the  centre ''of  Orient 
and  Occident,  and  which  therefore  figures  in  the  books  of  the- 
twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries  as  the  seat  of  necromancy 
and  magic  arts.  It  was  there  that  young  Germans  learned 
the  black  art  under  Csesarius  of  Heisterbach ;  there  Gherardo 
of  Cremona,  Michael  Scott,  and  a  host  of  others,  subsequently 
suspected  of  all  manners  of  devil's  lore,  went  to  study 
Avicenna,  Averroes,  and  Aristotle  done  into  Arabic.  Arabic 
learning  became  the  common  property  of  the  learned  world, 
even  as  Arabic  poetry  had  long  been  the  common  and 
cherished  property  of  the  non-Mohammedan  people  of  Spain, 
Provence,  and  even  Italy,  and  remained  so  down  to  the 
terrible  fall  of  Granada — a  fall  ever  to  be  wept  over  in  the 
history  of  Spain,  if  not  of  humanity. 

Whether,  however,  Arabic  influence  on  the  contents  and 
form  of  the  romance  poetry  of  Spain,  such  as  we  know  it, 
was  quite  as  direct  as  the  author  of  the  work  before  us  thinks 
—whether,  in  particular,  the  two  most  popular  stanzas  of 
Spanish- Arabic  poetry,  the  "  Muwashaha  "  and  the  "  Zad- 
shal,"  were  grafted,  unchanged  almost,  upon  Spanish  and 
Provenpal  poetry — we  shall  not  here  discuss.  But  there  can 
be  no  doubt  of  the  existence  of  most  striking  reminiscences 
of  Arabic  poetry  in  Perez  de  Hita's  historical  romance  of  the 
civil  wars  of  Granada,  in  the  cycle  of  the  Cid,  and  in  the 
different  Cancioneros,  however  similar  or  dissimilar  their 
metres  and  the  arrangement  of  their  rhymes.  Nor  is  its 
influence  less  apparent  in  early  Italian  poetry.  Jacopo  da 
Todi  uses  the  same  form  for  his  Christian  hymns  which  the 
Arabs  used  for  the  praise  of  Allah.  Not  a  few  of  the 
"  canzone,"  "  canzonette,"  and  even  the  "  ballatas  "  of  Dante, 
Petrarca,  Boccaccio,  exhibit  peculiarities  of  rhyme  and  metre 
belonging  to  the  favourite  Arabic  lyrics. 

Next  to  Spain,  Sicily,  which  had  been  subdued  by  the 
Arabs  after  hard  and  protracted  fights  at  the  beginning  of  the 
ninth  century,  claims  our  attention.  But  not  before  the 
middle  of  the  tenth  century,  when  Palermo  became  the  seat 
of  the  Fatirnide  Governors,  do  the  fruits  of  the  enlightened 


461  ARABIC  POETRY  IN  SPAIN  AND  SICILY. 

Moorish  rule  become  apparent.     It  was  then  first  that  over 
the  plains  which  in  mythical  times  had  listened  to  Daphne's 
shepherd  songs,  and  which  afterwards  echoed  the  verses  of 
Stesichoros,  Theocritos,  and  Bion,  Semitic  poetry  lifted  up 
its  voice.     Grave  Emirs  who  had  never  heard  of  the  name  of 
2Eschylus  rejoiced  in  panegyrical  Kasidas  in  the  same  groves 
where  formerly  Prometheus  or  the  Oresteia  had  moved  Hel- 
lenic hearts,  and  where  Theron  of  Akragas  and  his  white 
team,  victorious  in  the  hot  race,  had  been  immortalised  by 
Pindar.     The   golden   days   of    Hiero   of  Syracuse  seemed 
to  have  arisen  once  more,  and  the  voice  of  song  was  heard 
in  the  palace  and  in  the  fields.     Even  when  the  Moslem 
power^  was  broken,  Roger  and!  his  Norman  knights  tried  to 
perpetuate  the  culture  of  the  conquered  race.     Their  arts 
and  sciences,  their  manners  and  customs>  became  the  coveted 
inheritance  of  the  conquerors.     The  kings  of  the  House  of 
Haute ville  copied  their  pageants  and  the  ceremonial  of  their 
whole  royal  household  from  the  Arabs.     Arabic  were  their 
coins,  Arabic  was  their  era,  Arabic,  nay  Koranic,  the  mottoes 
and  devices  which  they  publicly  adopted.     Their  palaces 
were  not  inaugurated  in  the  name  of  the  Trinity,  but  in  that 
of  Allah,  the   Merciful,  the   Compassionate.     William  the 
Good  was,  outwardly  at  least,  much  more  of  a  Mohammedan 
than  a  Christian ;  and  of  Roger  of  Sicily,  Monk  Eadmer,  his 
contemporary,  relates  that  he  never  allowed  a  Moslem  to 
embrace  Christianity — "  from  what  reason  I  know  not,  but 
God  will  judge  him."     Regarding  Sicilian  poetry,  there  is 
nothing  specially  characteristic   in  what  has    remained  to 
distinguish  it  from  the  Spanish  poetry  of  which  we  have 
spoken ;   except  perhaps  that  to  us,   upon  whom  classical 
reminiscences  would  come  crowding  at  every  step,  the  utter 
absence   of  the   slightest  allusion   to  Proserpina,   to  Poly- 
phemus, to  Arethusa,  and  the  rest,  is  somewhat  strange,  as 
strange  as  the  constant  allusions  to  gazelles  and  camels  in 
Sicily,  which  never  harboured  any.     There  is,  however,  one 
unmistakable  trait  in  most  of  these  songs — namely,  a  certain 
voluptuous  softness  which  seems  indigenous  to  the  island 
itself. 


ARABIC  POETRY  IN  SPAIN  AND  SICILY.  465 

Of  these  and  other  topics  connected  with  the  Arabic  rule 
in  Europe  the  work  before  us  pleasantly,  though  somewhat 
too  rapturously,  discourses.  Its  chief  merit,  however,  seems 
to  us  to  lie  in  the  translations  of  the  poems  with  which  it  is 
richly  studded.  The  whole  history  of  Spanish- Arabic  poetry 
has  hitherto  lain  fallow,  and  this  first  attempt  bodily  to 
transplant  some  of  its  half -Eastern,  half -Western,  flowers  into 
German  soil  deserves  to  be  heartily  encouraged.  II  err  von 
Schack  has  in  many  instances  been  peculiarly  happy  in  the 
execution  of  his  task.  The  whole  tone  and  texture  of  these 
strange  songs  is  often  reproduced  with  a  faithfulness  remind- 
ing us  of  Riickert  hi mself .  In  the  face  of  the  copious  modern 
literature  on  the  subject  there  seemed  to  be  less  occasion  for 
the  essays  on  Moorish  art  contained  in  the  book,  but  they 
too  give  ample  evidence  of  careful  study,  worthy  of  the 
author  and  his  labour  of  love. 


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